Careful What You Wish For
by Soului
Summary: The long awaited sequel to 'What I Always Wanted'. Danny has always wanted to be in space, and he finally is...but the cost is high. He has watched everything he loved fade and die over the centuries. Can he make a new place for himself in Starfleet?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Well, you wanted it, so here it is. The sequel/expansion of my oneshot. Thank you to everyone who reviewed 'What I Always Wanted' and I hope you enjoy this just as much. If you haven't read 'What I Always Wanted' yet, I suggest you do so or none of this will make any sense! I originally wanted to keep this with OCs on the Star Trek side, but I'm just not that good with OCs and I admit to being lazy. A ship full of OCs requires serious thought, brainstorming, and a lot of effort to make sure you keep all the characters straight while you're writing. For the purposes of this fic, I decided it would just be easier to have him transfer to the Enterprise where the characters are recognizable.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Star Trek.

The autumn wind assaulting him was cold, but Daniel Fenton didn't shiver. Cold didn't bother him much anymore, heat either for that matter.

_Being half-ghost will do that do you_, he mused.

The park was quiet today, no one there except he, the wind, and his memories, but he didn't feel alone. He could almost hear his loved ones' voices on the breeze, the constant drone of his sister and mother, the sudden and blunt gusts of his father, Tucker's playful dips and rolls, and her. Oh, how he could feel her. Sam's voice in the wind's softer breezes, her hands caressing his arms, her lips kissing his face. If he just sat there, he could imagine that the last centuries had only been a dream, that none of this had happened and they were all still alive.

A female laugh brought him out of his fantasies. He turned to look at the couple walking down the path behind him before returning to his previous position. Just a few kids coming home from school, they posed no threat.

Danny winced as that thought popped into his head. He was getting paranoid in his old age, although who could blame him. He'd been involved in some form or another of serious violence since he was fourteen. A little paranoia was justified.

He returned his attentions to the park around him. It hadn't changed much since his last visit, or any of the visits before really, and that was just how he wanted it. Memories of who he used to be were hard enough to hold onto without his few physical reminders changing. Being back here always brought back thoughts of his past, both the good and the bad.

After a few more moments of silence, he glanced at the antique wristwatch on his wrist and rose to his feet. As he had done so many times before, he transversed the clearing, placing flowers in seemingly random spots on the ground. Anyone watching would surely have thought it odd, but Danny Fenton stopped caring what people thought a long time ago. After he had placed every flower but one, he walked over to an oak tree at the edge of the clearing. Reaching it, he bent down and placed a PDA among the roots. "Just a little something for old times sake my friend." He murmured with a soft smile.

He turned and seemed to address thin air. "I don't know when I'll be able to come back. I got a communiqué from command after that last mission. Me and another of my department are being transferred to the 'Enterprise'. It's a great honor and it'll be great for my career, but the 'Enterprise' logs a lot more time away from home than my last postings have. I'll miss you guys." He grew quiet for a minute, trying to memorize every detail of what might be the last visit in a long time. "Anyway, I'd better go. I'm due back at the ship in a few hours and I have one more stop to make."

It had taken him a long time to get over Sam, but they had both known he would outlive her. Sam had made it perfectly clear that he wasn't to spend the rest of eternity alone just because she was gone. In her last moments, she had practically ordered him to find someone else to be happy with. Still, it had been a long time before he could look at a woman in that way without feeling guilty; Andrea and he had found each other about a century after WW3. Like him, she had lost pretty much everyone she had ever cared about; they had found solace and love in each other. They were married for 60 years before she, like everyone else Danny knew, surrendered to the one enemy Phantom couldn't protect her from. Because she died after the war, Andrea was buried in the new graveyard across town. Clutching the last flower to his chest, Danny left to say his final farewell.

Lieutenant Daniel Fenton (he had been promoted a few weeks ago), was waiting to transport over to his new posting along with his crewmate, Lieutenant Alicia Jones. The two had been working together for the last few years, so she knew better than to try and engage him in small talk. It was a running joke that a replicater had more social skills than Fenton did, and he didn't seem all that interested in getting any. Daniel Fenton didn't _do_ small talk and he didn't socialize. While most off-duty officers would relax, grab a drink, or just generally hangout, no one had ever seen the lieutenant do anything of the sort. He had no friends, nor did he seem to want them. At work he was formal and curt with everyone, and after he was off he disappeared to his quarters, the holodeck, or the gym. Numerous pools had gone up around the ship about what he actually did with his free time. Danny, for his part, knew exactly how others thought of him and he didn't really care. If they were in his situation, they would act the exact same way.

The first thing he noticed upon arrival on the Enterprise was a dark-skinned man standing in front of the platform. He wore a standard Starfleet uniform denoting him as a Commander in the Engineering Corps and a silver visor covered his eyes. _This must be this Geordi LeForge I've heard so much about._ Danny thought

Approaching the man, Danny put down his bags and came to attention. "Lieutenant Daniel Fenton, reporting as ordered sir." To his side, Lieutenant Jones followed suit.

"Welcome to the Enterprise," The man said. "I'm Commander Geordi LeForge and I'll be your new commanding officer. If you follow me, I'll show you your quarters so you can get settled in before the initial briefing."

A few hours later, Danny was being shown around the engineering deck, getting accustomed to the layout and such. The briefing was just about done and Danny couldn't wait to get back into his quarters, transform, and see what was up in the Zone. He hated being so formal, it wasn't natural, but it was a necessary survival mechanism. Just a bit longer and he could 'take the stick out' so to speak and let loose in the Ghost Zone, laugh a little, maybe even have a sparring match with Frostbite. _Yeah, a sparring match would feel good right now._

He was so distracted with his thoughts that he almost didn't hear Commander LeForge dismiss them. He was about to bolt when his new CO called over an officer who had obviously just finished his shift. "Hey Simon, come here a sec." He turned to the newbies. "Lieutenant Fenton, Lieutenant Jones, this is Lieutenant Simon Derekson."

"Just Simon while I'm off." The man said cheerfully. "We're the same rank after all."

"In that case, I'm Alicia." Lieutenant Jones replied. She shook his hand warmly before Simon turned to Danny.

"Lieutenant Fenton will do fine." Danny answered the questioning look.

Simon looked a bit baffled, but was otherwise unfazed.

"Simon," Geordi suggested. "Why don't you take our new crewmembers to Ten Forward, introduce them to some people."

"Sounds good to me." Derekson agreed

"Sure," said Lieutenant Jones. "Sounds great."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'd like to just go to my quarters." Danny replied, turning to leave.

"Oh come on, It'll be fun." Derkson laughed, making to grab Danny's shoulder.

_Great, he was going to be one of __those._ Danny thought irritably. Scowling, he turned back towards his crewmate. "Thank you Lieutenant Derekson, but I'd really rather be in my quarters."

With that, he turned and left. He caught Alicia Jones' voice behind him before the door closed. "Don't worry about it, he's like that with everyone."

Back in Engineering

Alicia looked at Simon's baffled face as Fenton walked out. Sometimes she wondered if the guy purposefully tried to upset as many people as humanly possible. Simon seemed like a nice guy, he didn't deserve the 'Fenton' treatment. "Don't worry about it." She said, trying to cheer him up. "He's like that with everyone."

"All the time?" Commander LeForge was incredulous.

"Unfortunately, sir," Alicia said dryly. "Don't get me wrong, he's a great officer. Works hard, gets the job done. He just doesn't do people."

Simon shrugged, "Oh well, his choice I guess. Let's go Alicia, I've got some friends of mine who'll love to meet you."

With that, the two lieutenants walked towards the lift. Geordi looked after them, thinking about the overly formal young man who had left before. _Maybe I should ask Deanna to talk to him._ The Commander mused. _There's got to be some psychological reason behind his behavior. No human is that anti-social naturally._

Back to Danny

Danny let out a huge sigh as the doors to his quarters closed. Making sure the privacy lock was on and his comlink was with him (in case anyone needed him), he began the transformation. As a halfa, his instinctual reaction to stress was to transform into something more defensible. No matter how old or experienced he was, the first day on the job is always stressful; he had been containing the urge to go ghost for hours. A thrill of exhilaration and relief surged through him as he touched his cold center. He could feel the power seething below the surface, aching to be set free. He felt it expand and explode. It leapt through him in a familiar wave, sweeping away his human form and revealing his true nature.

After all was said and done, Danny Phantom was floating a few feet above the floor. _Man this feels good. _He thought. _Talk about stress relief._ Without any more hesitation, he opened up a portal and slipped into the Ghost Zone.

A few good hours of sparring later, Frostbite and Phantom sat side by side in the snow. If anyone from Starfleet could've seen them, they would never have recognized Danny. Besides his ghostly appearance, Lieutenant Daniel Fenton was relaxed and joking around with the yeti-like ghost beside him.

"So Skulker and I are circling each other right? And we're doing the whole witty banter thing, or at least I was, Skulker wouldn't know witty if it bit him in the butt. Anyway, we're circling each other, each wanting nothing more than to beat the other into an ectoplasmic pulp, when suddenly the Box Ghost pops up between us. 'FEAR ME!'" Danny illustrated his point with hands raised in a semblance of claws while doing his very best Box Ghost impression.

Both ghosts laughed. "Sometimes Great One, I wonder where the Box Ghost was when intelligence was being handed out." Frostbite managed through his chuckles.

"I've often thought the same thing." Danny said. "Who knows? Maybe the accident that killed him rattled his ghostly brain too."

Both collapsed into laughter once more. As their mirth subsided, Frostbite regarded his old friend, looking at his happy and relaxed face. He wasn't sure how to bring up the next subject he wanted to discuss. Although Phantom and he had been friends for centuries, he had an enormous amount of respect for Danny (evidenced by how he still called him 'Great One' even though they were close). He didn't know how to say this. "You seem to be in a much better mood than when you arrived."

Phantom grinned at him. "Yeah, after having to act like there's a stick up where the sun don't shine all day, it's nice to let loose and be myself."

"Great One," Frostbite hesitated. "If existence is so much more pleasant for you here, why do you still reside in the living world?"

Danny was very quiet for a minute as his smile faded to something a bit more wistful. "I would love to stay here Frostbite. No matter how anti-social I am, I still get attached to some of the mortals out there. But I can't. My hero complex won't let me." He teased gently before becoming more serious. "Besides, Clockwork thinks I should stay there. He won't give me any reasons of course, but you know as well as I do that if Clockwork thinks I'm needed out there, then there's a darn good reason. Maybe there's a specific event I'm supposed to stop or something. I don't know. But once I don't need to be there, I'll probably move into the Zone like Vlad and Danni have."

He cocked his head at Frostbite. "Speaking of Danni," He said, changing the subject. "How's she doing? I haven't had the chance to talk to her for a while."

-  
Meanwhile, on the Enterprise

Councilor Deanna Troy was finishing up some paperwork when her door beeped.

"Come in." She called, looking up from the data-disk in front of her. "Geordi! What a nice surprise. What can I do for you?" She abandoned the data-disk and went to replicate drinks for the two of them. "Is this a social visit or work related?"

"Actually," Geordi replied. "I wanted to talk to you about one of the new recruits we got today, Daniel Fenton."

"Oh?" Deanna handed Geordi a glass and led him to the couch. "Something wrong?"

Geordi paused, trying to put his thoughts into words. "He's the most anti-social person I've ever met in my life. And he makes Data look passionate he's so formal! The officer that transferred with him said that he's always like that and that it doesn't effect his work, but I was wondering if you could talk to him. I mean, no human is like that naturally, there's got to be a reason."

Deanna frowned and walked to the computer terminal on her wall, bringing up Lieutenant Fenton's file. After considering it for a few moments, she turned back to Geordi. "My first guess would be some kind of traumatic event, but I can't find anything in his file at first glance." She smiled at her friend. "I'll see what I can do, you've piqued my interest."

After a few more minutes of friendly conversation, the two bid each other good night and Geordi left. Councilor Troy, on the other hand, accessed the computer and began a more detailed background search for Lieutenant Fenton.

A/N: Well, I hope you liked it. I'm not entirely sure if I like the way it came out, but I might rewrite it later. Tell me what you think, hit the little review button please! And I'm not sure if I got Geordi's rank right, so I would appreciate it if someone could let me know. Any suggestions are welcome! Until next time.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I received some absolutely incredible ideas and some really helpful feedback. I want to especially thank Nylah for her excellent constructive criticism. Also, thank you to everyone who pointed out my misspelling of Councilor Troi's name. It's fixed in this chapter.

Disclaimer: You know the drill; I own nothing. I'm writing for my own pleasure only.

Deanna Troi was normally a very calm and collected person; it took a lot to get under her skin. But after a mere two days of background searching Daniel Fenton she was boiling with frustration and about ready to lose it entirely. She was looking for something traumatic; abuse at an early age, estrangement from parents, the unexpected death of a pet! There was nothing! As far as she could tell, Daniel Fenton had enjoyed a perfectly normal and happy childhood. He got good marks in school, behaved himself, and joined Starfleet Academy once he was old enough. He was an only child whose parents were botanists (currently incommunicado on a long term research expedition). He had moved around a lot as a child, had no known close friends and had no other listed relatives. Maybe it was as simple as that, he moved around too much to learn how to socialize properly? Afraid of making attachments that were always short lived? It was an extreme reaction for something so trivial, but not out of the realm of possibility. Deanna made a mental note to further explore that avenue.

_It wouldn't be so bad_, Deanna thought. _If only I could actually get an opportunity to speak with him, but every attempt I've made has been thoroughly avoided. He sure acts like he has experience avoiding councilors, but given his antisocial behavior, I wouldn't be surprised. Geordi can't have been the first commanding officer to notice._ With a final sigh of frustration, Deanna closed down the search program and headed to bed. Lieutenant Fenton was scheduled for a routine physical tomorrow afternoon. It would probably be her best chance to corner him.

**-break-break-break-**

The regular physicals demanded by Starfleet were always tricky for Danny; every time he walked in that door there was risk of exposure. How could he explain that he had ectoplasm fused to his DNA, or that his core body temperature was far below normal, or the colour of his blood? (The greenish tinge had become more and more obvious over time.) Fortunately for him, he could hold a duplicate for long periods of time. Every time he was scheduled for a physical he would duplicate in his quarters, go about his day like normal, and have his duplicate overshadow the medic when it came time to be examined. After having the medic 'perform' several routine tests (they were actually fabricating normal results), he would walk out of the infirmary with no one the wiser. As far as the medic was concerned, the physical revealed he was perfectly healthy, and more importantly, perfectly normal.

The system was by no means perfect. Danny was adept at almost every type of combat imaginable; he could take out anyone on this ship in about 5 seconds with one hand tied behind his back. He could emerge unscathed from almost any situation, but it was impossible to prepare for all eventualities. A lot could happen in space. He dreaded the idea of being injured and brought to the infirmary unconscious. If he wasn't awake, there was no way he could keep his secret.

"Borrowing trouble Fenton." He murmured as he prepared to duplicate.

There was no point in worrying about it now. Besides, worse comes to worse, the secret gets out and he disappears into the Zone for a few decades. After a while, people would forget and he could come out, make a new life for himself. One more name to add to his growing list. If there was one thing he learned from Clockwork, it's that nothing lasts forever. "Present company excluded of course." The old ghost had chuckled.

Phantom let out a laugh of his own before concentrating briefly. Another Phantom appeared beside him. The two looked at each other. "You know the drill." Danny told 'himself' before transforming back to human and walking out of his quarters.

He was going to be late for his shift if he didn't hurry.

The rest of the day was utterly normal, and the physical had gone much as any other before. The deception went off without a hitch and Danny was soon walking out of the infirmary. Behind him, the medic was still a little out of it; disorientation and confusion were inevitable side effects of overshadowing.

He was just turning towards his quarters when a voice rang out behind him. "Lieutenant Fenton!"

He turned to see a beautiful woman approaching him. Her dark hair fell long below her shoulders and her face was the picture of peace and serenity. Danny silently groaned. Anytime he was on a new ship he made it a point to a) learn who the councilor was, and b) stay far, far away. Having an in-depth discussion about his mental state was not high on his list of things to do. The woman pulled even with him. "I don't think we've had the chance to meet. I'm the ship's councilor, Deanna Troi. I was wondering if we might have a chat while you're off duty," She took in his cocked eyebrow. "I make it a habit to speak with any new crewmembers." She explained.

Danny sighed; he really didn't have an excuse for not talking to her. By experience he knew that if he blew her off, she would just get more obstinate. It was really better for everybody if he got it over with now. "Which way is your office Councilor?" He asked, resigned.

Deanna smiled. "I was thinking something a little less formal. Have you had a chance to visit Ten-Forward yet?"

About 20 minutes later, Danny was observing the Councilor from the other side of a table, a glass of water in his hand. He usually avoided places like this. Interacting with people on duty was difficult enough, watching them chill out and have fun was almost unbearable. He wanted to join in, he really did. Sitting like this, surrounded by relaxing officers, he had to continually remind himself why he couldn't. Still, Danny had to admit that the atmosphere in Ten-Forward was appealing. The low light and smooth lines in the décor seemed to melt the tension right out of you. It made you feel safe. _Which is probably why the Councilor wanted to meet here_, Danny mused.

"So your file says both your parents are botanists." Troi's voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"That's right."

"So you moved around a lot as a child?"

"A bit." She was going to force him into doing this, that was fine. But under no circumstances was Danny going to make it easy for her.

"That must've been a hard environment for making friends."

"I made a few."

"You still keep in touch with them?"

"Not really."

Deanna sighed, she could already tell that this was going to get her nowhere. The man's lips might as well be airlocks and she had no doubt that he had long ago memorized all the 'right' answers to her subtle questions. She tried a different tack. "Listen, Daniel, I can see perfectly well that you don't want to be here right now. I just want you to know that you can talk with me if you need to. My door is always open. I'm not here to pass judgment, only to help."

Danny's lips twitched. If he had a nickel for every time he had heard that little speech, he could live in comfort for the rest of his life. Downing his glass of water, he placed it back on the table and rose to his feet. "I'll keep that in mind Councilor. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to relax a little before my next shift."

With that, he walked out of Ten-Forward, leaving behind an increasing frustrated Deanna Troi. She would be persistent though. Daniel Fenton intrigued her, there was something about the man which wasn't quite right. Being an empath, Deanna had an advantage over her sometimes stubborn patients, and Daniel was obviously masking his emotions through the very same cold façade that he gave to others. He was hiding his feelings from even himself. _His level of control is remarkable._ She thought. _I felt like I was talking to a Vulcan back there. _Still, there was a definite undercurrent of pain and loss. It shone through his masterful blocking like a roiling thundercloud. The emotions were too intense for something as simple as moving around a lot as a child. There was some deep trauma there, no matter what the background check said. Deanna was determined to find out what it was.

Geordi's voice interrupted her thoughts. "No luck I take it?"

"Not even a crack in the armor." The empath sighed, still looking at the door Danny had so recently exited. "I admit myself frustrated. Still intrigued, certainly, but frustrated." She looked at Geordi. "How's he been at work?"

"No change." The commander said. "Comes to work, stays focused, follows orders, and leaves when his shift is over, all without cracking a smile."

"No friends yet?"

"Not even a hint." Geordi replied. "Some of the younger officers have begun placing bets on what he does with his off time. Stays in his quarters, the gym, or goes on the holodeck from what I can see."

Deanna frowned. "You don't think we have another holo-addiction problem, do you?" She asked, remembering the incident with Reg.

"Nah." Geordi dismissed after a moment. "Doesn't seem the type. Besides, I checked the logs myself; he uses the deck a lot, but not excessively."

Deanna ran her hands through her hair. "Have you noticed anything else about his behavior? Hobbies? Interests?"

The engineer thought about it for a minute. "A couple of comments he's made make me think he knows something about old spaceships. As in, really old, early space exploration type spaceships."

Troi thought about that. "It would make sense, considering his career path as an engineer." Old spaceships, she could use that.

Geordi leaned closer. "I did notice something odd though. You know how Worf puts every officer through basic defense training?" Deanna nodded. "When Fenton went in he did well, not exceptional, but on the higher end of average. But the way he moved, the look on his face as he studied his opponent, the way he held the phaser, he looked way more experienced than he should be. Like he had been fighting all his life. Not enough to make most people suspicious mind you, just if you were really looking."

"You think he was faking? Why would he do that?" Councilor Troi was perplexed. Most trauma victims pulled away from society for fear of being hurt again, but they rarely held back in training sessions. They couldn't help using the activity to gain the attention of peers that they so badly wanted, but refused to allow themselves. Not to mention the cathartic release of aggression and anger that training provided.

"I don't know." Geordi answered. "But I did notice this, you and I both know that no one escapes Worf's sessions unscathed. When I looked the next day, I couldn't find a bruise on him."

"Starfleet uniforms cover a lot of skin." Deanna pointed out.

Geordi was already shaking his head. "He was working out in the gym. The man is built! Though it's not surprising considering he does nothing else with his time."

Deanna took the information and filed it away for later reference.

**-break-break-break-**

Danny, in the meantime, had just about reached his quarters when his ghost sense went off. It was probably Wulf or Dora coming for a visit, but just in case it was unfriendly…Danny's eyes subtly scanned the corridor. Once he was sure he was alone, he went invisible and phased through his door. He relaxed almost immediately. "Dani!" He exclaimed, a huge grin spreading across his face.

His clone/cousin looked up from where she was reading on his couch; her smile mirrored his own. "Hey Danny…long time, no see." She looked him up and down. "I didn't know about the Starfleet thing at first. But I have to admit, you do look good in uniform."

Danny snorted and transformed back to human now that he was sure there was no ghostly threat waiting to jump him. "Can I get you something?" He asked Dani over his shoulder as he headed for the replicater.

"You off duty for a while?" She asked, then, at his assenting nod, "Sure, gimme a beer...Guinness if you can get it."

"Sorry," Danny laughed. "Guinness is one thing lost forever to time. The replicater only offers 'Beer-20th century brewing technique'." The particles within the machine glowed and seemed to swarm, gradually forming into two glasses of amber liquid.

"It's a shame really," He continued as he retrieved their drinks. "We're the only ones left who remember how good it was."

Dani winced. "Man that makes me feel old."

The elder halfa laughed. "Tell me about it. The worst is when I catch a snatch of the children's ancient history lessons. It really drives home my age when I hear the teacher talking about events that I remember. Some of which I even participated in!"

"You ever have the urge to correct their mistakes?" Dani asked.

"No," Danny answered easily. "Then I'd have to explain my thinking. But it does amuse me to read about some archeologists' mistaken ideas. I actually read a book a few months ago on myself."

"Really?" Dani laughed. "That's hilarious! What did it say?"

"Well," Danny snickered. "It was this man's opinion that the 'mysterious figure known as Phantom' was an urban legend conjured up by the government at the time to cover up covert operations."

Dani just howled at that. "Oh, that's great," She said, wiping tears from her eyes. "What did he use to back it up?"

"Oh, I can't remember," Danny waved his hand vaguely. "He went on and on about the holographic capabilities of the day and the governments increasing paranoia or something like that. To be perfectly honest, I started to loose interest."

They joked for a while longer before Dani grew more serious. "I saw Vlad the other day." She started carefully.

Danny's voice immediately got a little harder, his smile faded. "Yeah? How's the fruit loop doing these days?"

"Same as normal…sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, pining for your mom, just generally being a pain in the butt." She smiled briefly before becoming serious. "Look Danny…" She stopped for a moment, obviously trying to collect her thoughts. She finally groaned in frustration. "There is no way to say this without you taking it the wrong way…Look… I know you hate each other. I have no love for Vlad either. But the fact is that we're going to be coexisting with him for a long time, longer than most people can even comprehend…and let's face it, you can't last out here forever. Eventually, you're going to get tired of watching everyone around you grow old and you'll move into the Zone. Don't you think it would be best for everyone if you could tolerate each other when that happens? I'm not asking you to be friends." She said quickly, seeing his incredulous expression. "Just be able to catch sight of each other without wrecking the whole Ghost Zone. All that stuff that you hold against him? It's ancient history. I don't expect you to forget everything he did to you, just forget the grudge. He told me that he would let it go if you would."

Danny growled, his eyes flashing. "I can never forget some of the things he did. And I will never, ever, like him or probably even be civil to him." His eyes softened. "But you're probably right. It's ancient history. Alright, I will never be comfortable in his presence, but you can tell him that I won't attack without provocation."

Danni seemed to sigh in relief. The subject was dropped and the rest of the night was spent in pleasant conversation.

A/N: For those of you who know nothing about Star Trek, the comment on Reg refers to an episode when an officer on the Enterprise becomes addicted to the virtual reality generator known as the holodeck. As always, I hope you liked it. Any suggestions/criticisms/comments you would like to make would be most welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's great to see people taking an interest in this story. Some of you raised very good questions, some of which I hadn't even thought about, so I hope that this chapter answers some of those questions to your satisfaction. To those of you who wanted to see Q get involved here, I'm trying to work out a way to write him in. He won`t get into the next few chapters probably, but it's too perfect an idea to pass up.

One question before we begin, does anyone know how to do a proper break between sections of a story. I see other people's fics with solid lines across, but I can't figure out how. Nothing I do seems to translate to from Word. It's starting to irritate me because my best approximation (-break-) looks silly and messes with the flow of the story. Anyone who can help, it would be greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own DP or ST: TNG

_**-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-**_

A comfortable routine was reached over the next few months. Danny settled easily into his work and had soon created a reputation of extreme competence. He was hardly liked (he never was), but his fellow officers had quickly begun to respect his opinion on business matters. They were fast learners too, he had only been working with them for a week when they seemed to get the message that he didn't like to socialize. Danny suspected that Jones had helped in that regard and he was, inwardly, very grateful to her for it. Offers for him to join the group in Ten-Forward or the holodeck had quickly ceased. Even the overly cheerful and persistent Simon Derekson had soon learned to leave him alone.

Deanna Troi was still being annoyingly attentive, but even she was spending less time trying to bring him out of his shell. She had other patients after all, and as his behavior wasn't affecting work, he had dropped significantly on her priority list. Danny gave it a few more months before she lost interest permanently. He visited the Ghost Zone frequently and was truly enjoying double existence for the first time in a long time. The work on the Enterprise was stimulating, all of his colleagues were extremely talented, and he found himself earnestly liking his commanding officer. In many ways, Commander LeForge reminded him of Tucker at that age. It made him profoundly curious as to what Geordi had been like as a teenager.

There had been a slight scare a few weeks into his tour, when one of his co-workers commented to Commander LeForge that there seemed to be more energy fluctuations on his deck than normal. When Danny made a portal, the energy used was extremely localized and didn't last long, but there was still a small unavoidable energy reading generated, and that small reading could be seen on sensors if the engineer monitoring them were diligent enough. In retrospect, he should have seen it coming. The Enterprise was crewed with the very best and brightest of Starfleet, of course they would notice. Thankfully, the energy fluctuations were attributed to the normal wear and tear of circuits, at least for now. The Enterprise itself generated a huge amount of energy. As long as he passed through quickly, his portals barely registered as a blip and well within the normal parameters of ship operation. Still, Danny made a mental note to find secure areas around the ship that he could open a portal. Even the smallest energy fluctuation would raise suspicions if it kept occurring in the same place.

He was currently on the Enterprise's recreation deck, bench-pressing more than he probably should for appearances sake, but the gym was empty and he really felt the need to give his muscles a workout. That was one of the main drawbacks to being part of Starfleet as far as he could tell. It was difficult to find opportunities to be physically active when you were constantly stuck in the confines of a spacecraft, even one as large and well suited for everyday living as the Enterprise. Ironic, considering that Starfleet was military based and structured.

Like most other aspects of his powers, the strength that had allowed him to pick up cars and throw enemies through walls even when he had been a 14-year-old weakling had gradually filtered into his human form. Not all of his ghostly strength, not by any means. If he needed to, say, lift a shuttle or something, he would need to transform, but he was still far stronger than any normal human had the right to be. In some ways, it was a relief. Gone were the days where he was helpless and weak in his human form. It was one less weakness he had to worry about. On the other hand, it was one more way in which he had to hide from everyone else, one more way in which he was different. He sighed in frustration; if he wanted to really work out, he would have to go to the Zone where he wouldn't have to worry about someone walking in. Checking his watch, he decided against it. _Not enough time before my next shift. _He thought.

Finishing his last rep, he sat up and moved the weight setting to something a little more average. No point in risking the next person to use the machine noticing anything unusual. Moving to the practice mats, he began working through some basic combat moves. The familiar push and pull of his muscles felt good as he preformed the katas and exercises that had become second nature to him over the course of centuries…left hook, right hook, spinning kick, left jab. He began to imagine ghostly foes as he struck, Skulker's face rose before him as he punched and kicked, blocked and dodged. The rest of the room began to fade as he sunk into the routine. Subconsciously, he began to move faster, not holding back as much. It was an awful risk in a public area like the gym, but he hadn't been in a real fight for months. His body screamed for action. Soon his hands and feet were nothing more than blurs as he moved around the room. Dozens of fighting techniques, learned on dozens of worlds blended together into a truly stunning combat style that was entirely his own. The sweat making its way down his body felt wonderful, as if all his tension was oozing out of his pores. The fact that he was in a public gym faded to the back of his perception, until all that mattered were his movements. Ghosts rose before him and were subsequently taken down.

Coming to the end of his routine, Danny came to a halt in the center of the mat and, lost in his own thoughts, did something he rarely ever did; he let his guard down. Breathing deeply, he let his muscles relax and closed his eyes, felt the sweat on his body and the beat of his heart. He didn't even hear the door hiss open or the footsteps approach until a hand reached out for his shoulder.

It was purely an instinctual reaction, born out of many of the many sneak attacks he had endured in his life. Before the hand even reached its target, Danny was moving. Lighting fast, he snatched the offending appendage and twisted it almost to the point of breaking. His victim didn't even have time to yelp before their legs were kicked out from under them and they landed on the ground with a dull thump. Meanwhile Danny had leapt away and was crouched in a classic combat stance, eyes alert and calculating. It took him a second before he realized exactly whom he had just attacked. _Oh, damn_. He silently cursed. Lying on the ground, just getting his wits back, was the ship's First Officer, William Riker.

Taking a calming breath and still cursing himself, Danny went to assist his fallen superior. "I'm very sorry about that sir," He said to the stunned Commander, once more adopting his cold façade. "You startled me. Are you hurt?"

Coming back to himself, Riker wordlessly shook his head and took Danny's offered hand. Upright once more, Will winced and rubbed his twisted wrist. "It's fine Lieutenant, it was my fault." He considered the ground where he had been lying a few moments before, then shot a glance at Danny. "Ever consider transferring to security?" He asked, half joking. "Worf would probably love to have someone like you working under him. Where'd you learn to do that anyway?"

The paranoid part of Danny's mind screamed warnings and he kept his back from stiffening through sheer effort of will. "It was an interest of mine as a kid. My family moved a lot so I picked up different styles here and there."

Will smiled. "You'll have to show me sometime."

"Yes sir." Danny agreed reluctantly with a curt nod. "If you'll excuse me sir, I have a shift in half an hour." With that, he practically fled out of the room.

Wandering back to his quarters, he wondered if he should start packing in anticipation for a quick getaway into the Ghost Zone. No one had come that close to his secret in a long time. _Stupid, __**Stupid**__ Fenton!_ He raged at himself. _How could you let your guard down? Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!_

The reason for his absolute aversion to exposure wasn't that he feared the crew wouldn't accept him for what he was…at least, not really. After all, he had once been accepted as he was by the entire world. Those brief, golden decades after the Disasteroid would always hold the foremost place in his heart. The human race had been younger then, more prone to violence, and yet they had accepted him, even raised him up as their hero. **That** was the problem. He had gotten a taste of being the world's hero, of being accepted by everyone for what he was and what he could do, and it had been wonderful. And then the Third World War had happened. Even with all of his power, he hadn't been able to prevent it, and quite suddenly the lines weren't clear anymore. It wasn't as simple as thwarting the bad guys with their maniacal (and obviously evil) plans and protecting the humans. Now humans were the bad guys and not everyone walked away from each fight. Quite suddenly, he wasn't just protecting the world, he was being asked to pick sides. He was being asked to **kill**, and kill humans at that, and because the whole world knew who he was, he couldn't get away from either side.

He never wanted to face a choice like that again.

Thankfully for him, a lot of knowledge had been lost during that horrible, horrible war. He emerged from the ashes as little more than a myth, his true identity forgotten. He had been able to start over with a new name, a new life, and he had decided to never allow his secret to become so exposed again. He had seen history; he knew how things worked. The Federation might be at peace at the moment, but eventually there would be some new conflict, some new war, and he would be forced to choose just as he had all those years ago. The only way he could be sure to avoid that situation was if no one knew who he was. He would not allow his secret to be exposed, especially not to a military organization like Starfleet.

Besides, he had withheld information to gain acceptance into Starfleet in the first place, a punishable offense. His whole background was a lie (albeit a necessary one). It was entirely possible that his superiors would take that deception the wrong way if they found out about it. No, it was best for all involved if his secret remained safely in the dark. The last thing he needed was for that nosy councilor to get any hint he was anything more than a particularly antisocial human. She and the Commander were close friends he had heard. The incident in the training room was bound to come out in casual conversation.

_Unless he wants to preserve his ego._ Fenton thought, grabbing a hold of that slim hope. _Maybe he just wants to forget it ever happened._ He snorted._ With my luck, right. And monkeys will fly out of my butt._ Still, he should be OK for the moment. He had done something unusual true, but not anything particularly ghostly. Besides, Danny Phantom was a centuries old urban legend, most people had never even heard of him. The truth would be the last thing that occurred to them.

Once inside his quarters, he closed his eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths. He had a shift soon and he needed to be in control. In his long and illustrious experience, people only made a big deal of these things if you did. If he pretended there was nothing out of the ordinary, chances were that the incident would just fade to memory. Forcing himself to relax, he carefully schooled his face into its usual expression and walked back out his door. He didn't want to be late for work.

_**-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-**_

Meanwhile, Will was working through his normal routine in the gym. Every so often he would wince as his wrist was pulled the wrong way, his reminder of the young Lieutenant Fenton. _Good grief, he was strong_, the Commander thought, regarding the vibrant bruise blossoming below his hand. …_A grip like a vise._ He didn't relish the thought of explaining it to Deanna that night. After all, he needed to maintain a little dignity, and getting beaten up by a junior officer was sure not the way to go about it. Even a junior officer as adept as Fenton obviously was. Besides, he didn't want to get the young man in trouble; it was an honest mistake after all.

Will had heard Deanna and Geordi talking about Lieutenant Fenton several times in the last few months, but he hadn't really paid attention. _Maybe I'll have to re-examine that perspective._ Riker thought wryly. _A lot of potential, that one!_ His thoughts were interrupted as his comlink beeped. Wiping the sweat off his face, he tapped the device. "Riker here."

Worf's voice greeted him. "Commander, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I'm in need of a favor."

He sounded distinctly uncomfortable, but Will knew that Worf hated ever having to ask for help so that wasn't entirely unexpected. "No, no, it's fine. What can I do for you Worf?"

"I am about to begin an intermediate self-defense class in training room 5. Lieutenant Asper was scheduled to assist me, but was forced to cancel at the last moment. If it is not too inconvenient, I wondered if you might take her place."

He really had no excuse not to. His shifts were over for the day and his dinner with Deanna wasn't until much later. "Alright, I'm actually just down the hall from you. I'll be there in a minute."

"Thank you Commander." Worf's curt voice cut off. Will quickly got his stuff together and walked out the door.

A few minutes later, Riker was helping to demonstrate self-defense movements while Worf explained them. He was quickly regretting his decision to volunteer. He didn't mind helping out really, but every so often Worf's hand would meet his wrist and he would have to stop a hiss of pain from escaping. Maybe he would have to pay Dr. Crusher a visit, the muscle was certainly tender. What on Earth was Fenton doing in Engineering if he could fight like that? He was immensely relieved when Worf dismissed the class almost an hour later.

It must have shown on his face, because Worf approached him as soon as the last student had left. "Are you alright Commander? What happened to your wrist?"

Will sighed, this was almost as embarrassing as explaining to Deanna. "I startled Lieutenant Fenton a few hours ago in training room 2," He explained. "I guess he didn't hear me when I came up behind him because next thing I knew, I was flat on my back. Fenton was mortified."

Worf gave him an odd look. "Lieutenant Fenton? Are you certain?"

"Definitely, Deanna and Geordi have been talking about him for months. I'm telling you, the man should be in security…fights like a master. He claimed he picked up a lot of different fighting styles while his parents moved around the galaxy."

"Odd," Commented Worf. "The Lieutenant Fenton I took through basic training was adept enough, but he was nothing extraordinary, and he certainly shouldn't have been able to take you down."

Will's brow creased in confusion. The officer that had floored him had obviously been an expert martial artist. "Maybe he's been studying up?" Riker suggested.

"If that were so, why would he lie about how he came across those skills?" Worf pointed out.

Will had no answers.

-_**break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-break-**_

A/N: Ha Ha! I'm going to make Danny into the entire senior staff's project. By the time I'm through, they'll all be hunting after his secret. Hmmm, whom should I get interested next? Dr. Crusher? The Captain himself? You'll just have to wait and see, won't you? As always, I would welcome any feedback, suggestions, or questions you might have. I`ll try to reply to every review you give me, even if it`s only to say thanks.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed! Your words of encouragement are the best part of my day. Also, a big thank you to everyone who helped me with my line break problem. It sounds ridiculous that I've been writing fanfiction for several years and only just learned how to do proper line breaks, but at least I know how to do them now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Star Trek. I do however own Adrian Whipstaf (kudos to anyone who can guess how I got her last name).

* * *

Ensign Adrian Whipstaf was confused. Confused and frightened. One minute she had been doing a routine maintenance check on one of the plasma coils, and the next minute everything turned into chaos. There had been sparks and electricity she remembered, someone had screamed, and then she was lying flat on her back, looking up at the engineering room ceiling. People had crowded around as she picked herself up and she tried to reassure them that she was fine; she felt a little strange, but she was fine. It was the weirdest thing though. She couldn't seem to get their attention. Even Commander LaForge was ignoring her. She reached out to tap her friend Simon on the shoulder, but her hand went right through. Simon had shivered a bit, but it was like she wasn't even there. She wasn't even on the ground, she noticed, she was floating several inches off the deck plating.

_What in the world?_ Adrian thought, utterly baffled. _What happened?_ She looked at the faces of her shipmates around her. All showed shock and fear and more than a little worry, and all were fixated on something behind her.

_What are they all looking at? _She wondered. She turned around to see her own face. Her body was still laying on the floor, a fellow officer desperately trying to perform CPR.

It was at that point that she started to freak out. She yelled. She screamed. She waved her arms in front of their faces and got no response. The medical team arrived. She followed as they took her still form to the infirmary; she watched as they tried in vain to revive her. She was sobbing, shaking her head in denial when Dr. Crusher announced the time of death. It couldn't be; it just couldn't; it was impossible. But as much as she denied it, as much as the rational side of her dismissed the idea, the truth was right in front of her face.

She was dead.

* * *

The day had started out pretty normally for Danny. He got up, ate breakfast, and reported for work on time. The training room incident a few weeks past had resulted in no negative effects that he could see. The councilor had no new interest in him beyond what she already had, and no uncomfortable questions had been asked about him assaulting a superior officer. For once it seemed Danny's luck had held. William Riker obviously had either forgotten the incident, or wanted to pretend it never happened, and Danny more than happy to do the same. After weeks of no action, Danny had relaxed and unpacked. He had indeed prepared for a quick run into the Zone, should his secret have been discovered.

Work had been passing much as it had any other shift when, about halfway through, electricity filled the air, turning everyone's hair on end. Red lights and alarms blared for an instant before a panel on the other side of the room went up, taking a nearby ensign with it in the explosion.

"Adrian!" Someone yelled, rushing to the girl's side.

All around, there were cries for a medical team, demands for status reports, and the tapping of keys while diagnostic programs went up; all systems were shut down until they could figure out what was wrong. Danny wasn't listening. His eyes were glued on the one person in the room that no one else could see.

His heart bled for the girl, it really did. Watching one's own death was one of the most traumatizing experiences imaginable, there was a reason that most ghosts blocked the memory out. It was plainly obvious that the girl was confused and scared (not that he blamed her) and Danny desperately wanted to help. If it weren't for all the witnesses, or the fact that he had a whole lot of diagnostics to run, he would've taken the new specter to his quarters straight away and explained things. The transition from living to dead was painful at the best of times, but it helped if there was someone to help you through it. Unfortunately for both of them, duplication was one trick he had yet to master in his human form. As soon as he got off, he resolved to have a heart to heart with the newbie.

She wasn't hard to find, young ghosts rarely left their body until the funeral. Sure enough, there she was, translucent tears streaming down her face as she floated. Danny considered her, invisible, from across the room, trying to figure out the best method of approach. This was always a delicate operation, one that Danny hated with all of his heart. He mentally braced himself, and then let go of his invisibility.

Her eyes locked on him instantly, full of shock and befuddlement. Slowly, as not to startle her, Phantom floated over, stopping a good distance away yet still within speaking distance. He spoke softly, trying to put as much compassion into his voice as possible.

"Hey."

The girl gaped at him, lost for words. After a moment, she began to stammer "You can…but I'm…and you're.."

"Floating?" His eyes lit up with amusement. Pale lips turned upwards in a soft smile. "Yeah. I'm Phantom by the way, Danny Phantom."

He held his hand out for her to take, but she ignored it. "Adrian Whipstaf, Ensign. Normally I would shake you hand, but considering circumstances..."

"Of course." Danny assured. He had offered the hand on purpose, knowing she wouldn't be able to shake it. He had wanted to assess her acceptance of her new situation.

Silence ruled for a long moment. Internally, Danny relaxed a bit; the initial moments were always the hardest. Surprisingly, it was Adrian who broke the quiet. "Soo, Phantom huh? So you're…?"

"A ghost?" Danny completed helpfully. "Yeah, I am. Just like you, in case you haven't noticed."

Her face fell. "I was kind of hoping that it wasn't true. That there was some other explanation."

"Afraid not." Danny said softly, putting his hand on her shoulder (or where her shoulder would've been if she weren't intangible). "The shock you took could've killed an elephant. Come on, let's go somewhere a bit more comfortable so I can explain things."

Guiding her gently out of the room, he navigated several decks and corridors before they reached his door. "What are you doing?" Adrian demanded. "Those are Lieutenant Fenton's quarters."

A smile broke over Danny's face. "I know," He assured her. "Just trust me."

Without further chance for argument, he led her through the wall and into the room beyond. Once safely inside, Danny dropped back and willed himself to become human. The ensign was far too busy looking around to notice the light of his transformation. "What if the Lieutenant...?" The question faded away as she turned around and took in his appearance. The look of shock on her face was comical.

"I don't think we have to worry about that." Danny chuckled. "I highly doubt that Fenton will mind."

"But the Liuetenant...you...are human!" She stammered. "You're in Starfleet. Someone would've noticed."

"They would," Danny agreed. "If I was fully dead, which I'm not. But that's a long story that will just confuse you more if you don't have the background info." He smiled up at her. "Make yourself comfortable while I get a drink. I would offer you one, but that could prove to be difficult, considering. I wouldn't worry though, you only died a few hours ago. Tangibility will come with age."

He walked over to the replicator as he spoke. Adrian hadn't moved; she was staring at him. His eyebrows lifted in inquiry as he retrieved his drink.

"You're different." She finally managed.

Danny actually laughed at that. "I thought that was already established, but yeah. Different is an excellent word to describe me."

Adrian was shaking her head. "No, I mean you're different than at work. You're not stiff, or calling me by my rank or acting like…" She trailed off, obviously mortified.

"A complete and utter jerk?" Danny laughed. "I know. That person you work with? That's not me, not even close. I'm actually a really laid back guy, I just act stuffy out there."

"Why?" The girl sounded thoroughly perplexed. "Why wouldn't you want people to like you?"

Danny shrugged. "That's part of the story that I was going to get to later. Just suffice it to say that I've learned from experience, extremely long experience, that it's easier this way for everyone involved."

With a heavy sigh he sank into a chair, a heavy silence permeated the air. "I'm not going to bite you know; you can come closer."

Adrian felt herself blushing profusely as she glided over, settling her self above a chair facing him. "There, that's better." He said. "We may as well be comfortable, I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while. I mean, I'm sure you're bursting with questions."

There were so many, but she supposed the most obvious was best to begin with. "What am I? I mean, I know I'm a ghost, but I'm not really sure what that means. I'm not some soulless remnant of who I used to be am I?"

"Of course not!" Danny scoffed. "You're no remnant, although there are ghosts like that. You're exactly who you think you are, Adrian Whipstaf, Ensign serving on board the Enterprise. You're still who you were before you died, you just work differently now. For the most part, ghosts aren't the horrible things that most people seem to think. We float, yes, we can pass through solid matter and shoot ectobeams as destructive as any phaser, but unless we choose to forget, we are still who we used to be." He smiled up at her. "That's actually one of the reason's I'm trying to help you here. All spirits are distraught right after their death, and too many loose themselves in that misery. They become consumed by their bitterness and hate because there was no one to support them, teach them, or explain things. Too many ghosts have become irrevocably malevolent simply because there was no one there for them when they died. I don't want that to happen to you."

Adrian looked down at her hands, eyes inexplicably filled with tears. "I'm thankful." She whispered. "So what now? What comes next?"

"Well," Danny said thoughtfully. "That depends a lot on you. I can only tell you the options. You'll obviously want to stick around here until after the funeral. Trust me when I say it helps bring some closure to the situation. After that? I don't know, there are several things you _could_ do. Number 1, I guess you could stick around the ship for a bit, a lot of spirits stay to make sure their loved ones are safe and what-not, but I wouldn't stay for too long. After a while your friends and family move on and you'll have to as well. Then again, you may want to head into the Ghost Zone right away. It's a sort of pocket dimension where ghosts live." He explained, seeing her questioning look. "You're made out of ectoplasm now, so you'll have to head into the Zone eventually if you want your strength to grow. I have a lot of friends there, so I'm sure I can hook you up with someone to show you the ropes, at least until you're comfortable enough to go out on your own. I have to warn you, it can be pretty rough in there at first if you don't have someone looking out for you."

Adrian bit her lip, unsure. "Don't worry about it." Danny assured. "The funeral isn't for a few days and you don't have to make a decision right away anyway. Even if you decide to stick around, I'm not going anywhere. When you're ready to move on, you come find me."

Adrian nodded slowly. "Thank you." She looked at him consideringly. "So what are you, if you don't me asking? I mean, you've already said you're not completely dead, but I'm a bit confused on how that's possible."

Danny waved it off. "Don't worry about it, I don't blame you. Before it happened to me, I would've had trouble believing it myself. I'm what is commonly known as a halfa, a ghost-human hybrid. None of us really know for sure how that works. All we _do_ know is that our genetic structure is completely human, but has ectoplasm bonded with it. We have all of the powers of the ghosts, but we have a human side as well. In fact, of the three of us in existence, only Dani was never completely human to begin with. She was born a halfa; Vlad and I got our powers in a lab accident.

My parents were ghost hunters you see. Back when I was fully alive, they built a portal into the Zone, but it didn't work. Like the stupid kid I was, I went inside hoping to fix it for my parents. Cliff notes version? I tripped on a power cord, my hand touched something on the wall, and the portal turned on with me inside. I woke up like this."

Adrian winced. "Ouch."

Danny grinned. "Believe me when I tell you, you have no idea. It has to be one of the more painful ways to go."

"So how long has it been since you….died?" She had no idea what else to call it. "You seem to be pretty experienced with this sort of thing, but you can't be any older than 25."

Phantom looked her straight in the eye. "That's the other reason you might want go to the Ghost Zone as soon as possible. Ghosts don't age Adrian. You might be happy out here for a while; you might even reveal yourself to your friends and continue relationships as if you were never gone, but eventually they'll get older and you won't. They'll die and you won't, and most of them won't become ghosts. In the Zone, you'll make friends that'll last as long as you will; you won't have to watch them fade away. You asked why I don't want to be liked out here? That's why. I'm reluctant to start any kind of personal relationship with mortals because I've had to say goodbye too many times." His expression turned melancholy. "I've been here a long time Adrian, so long that I've lost count of the years. I've seen and done things that you've only read about in history class. The third world war? I fought in it. First contact with the Vulcans? I was there. It's been centuries Adrian."

The former Starfleet officer looked down at her clasped hands. "I don't know, I just…" She stopped, unable to put her feelings into words.

Danny nodded sympathetically, "Don't worry about it," He repeated. "Like I said, you don't have to decide anything yet. You're a ghost now. You have all the time in the world."

* * *

It was a very nice funeral, _exactly like I would've wanted if I had any say in the matter_. Adrian thought to herself. She had stopped thinking of herself as 'Ensign' a while ago; military ranks were for the living. It had hurt at first, but it was becoming more comfortable, and Danny seemed to approve of her attitude. He saw it as a sign that she was accepting the truth and letting go, like he had advised. _He really is a sweet guy._ She thought. _I can't believe no one's seen through the façade._ Seeing his stiff form beside her though, she reconsidered. _One the other hand, he's a phenomenal actor. Has a lot of practice I guess._

Over the last few days, Phantom and she had spent a lot of time together. Sometimes he was helping her master her barely existent powers; sometimes they just talked. She talked about her life, her parents and friends, and he did the same. Those conversations usually ended up with him talking a lot more than she did, except to ask questions, not so surprising considering the sheer volume of his experience. He spent hours telling her about his many adventures, ghost fights, and hilarious family stories. Danny had never told her exactly how old he was, and part of her really didn't want to know.

He had taught her how to be tangible for short periods of time, but she couldn't hold it for long. She still couldn't get anyone but Danny to see her, but for right now, that was ok. He had positioned himself a little to the side of everyone else, giving her room to stand beside him. To anyone else, he was being his usual antisocial self (in fact, many were surprised that he actually came at all), but no one saw the specter beside him, nor noticed the invisible hand in Fenton's grasp. As much as she hated herself for her weakness, Adrian couldn't help it. She clung onto Danny's shoulder and sobbed. He couldn't show any external sign of comfort to her of course, except to give her hand an extra squeeze.

The obituary was very nice, if a little predictable, the usual 'she was a fine officer and a good friend' blah blah blah. It was so cliché that she could have laughed if she had been able to stop crying. Danny was right though, attending her own funeral brought a definite feeling of closure.

He stood there with her long after the coffin had been ejected into space and everyone else had gone. It probably wasn't good for his image, and Adrian appreciated the gesture. She was intangible again, unable to hold onto her solid form, but Danny could still see her even if he couldn't touch her. They might have stood there for hours if Councilor Troi hadn't interrupted them. "I was a little surprised to see you here Lieutenant. I wasn't aware you and Ensign Whipstaf were friends."

"We weren't." Danny replied shortly. "But we worked together and respected each other. I felt like I should be here." He took in her raised eyebrow. "I prefer to keep my relationships professional Councilor. That doesn't mean I have no empathy."

With that, he turned sharply and left. Adrian could've stayed for as long as she wanted, but decided there was little point. Staring helplessly out at her coffin wasn't going to get her anywhere. Besides, the Councilor was still there. Deanna Troi was half-betazoid, if anyone on board could sense her, it was the ship's councilor, and she wasn't ready to be exposed just yet, or maybe ever. With one last glance out the window, Adrian followed Phantom.

By the time Adrian caught up with him, Danny had already reached his quarters and was perusing his bookshelf, looking for a little light reading.

"I think you're the first person I've ever met who takes books shipside with him instead of data pads." She commented, needing to be able to focus on something, anything, other than the coffin floating off slowly into space. "Most people don't want to cut that much into their weight allowance."

Danny spared her a quick glance before turning back to the shelf. "True enough," He admitted easily. "But I figure that if anyone on this ship has the right to be nostalgic and old fashioned it's me."

Adrian bit her lip at the reminder of how old Danny really was. As silence fell over the two, she didn't enter any farther into the living space, but stood there looking at her host and seemingly gathering her courage. "Will you take me into the Ghost Zone?" She finally blurted.

Danny turned fully to regard her. "Now?"

Adrian nodded, still biting her lip. "If you don't mind."

"There's no pressure." Danny reminded. "My feelings on what you should do aside, I don't want to push you if you don't feel ready for this."

"I know," Adrian murmured. "But you're right, I'm a ghost now and that's not going to change, no matter how long I try to deny it. Besides, even if I choose to stay on the Enterprise, I should know something about this Ghost Zone. Better to do it now while I still have the nerve."

After looking at her for a long moment, Danny nodded and opened a portal. "Make sure you stay close to me." At her assenting response, he turned and plunged into the Ghost Zone, Adrian right behind him.

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn't what greeted her. Swirling green surrounded her in every direction, a vast field of ectoplasm stretching before her like the reaches of space. Every once in a while, a floating island or the many floating purple doors would interrupt the omnipresent green. There was little order to the place; gravity seemed to have no bearing here, doors were scattered without apparent rule or design. Up, down, right, and left seemed to be meaningless to this place. The sight was infinitely strange to the linearly accustomed mind of Adrian Whipstaf. Still, there was something about it; perhaps it was because she was a ghost, but she was inexplicably drawn to this place. Danny's voice interrupted her thoughts. "It's a bit odd at first sight I'll admit, but you soon get used to it. Come on, I want you to meet some people."

With that, he took off. She made sure to stay right behind him. All of her directional sense was worse than useless in the Zone. It was a good thing that Phantom apparently knew where he was going, because she would've likely wondered forever and never gotten anywhere. She shuddered at the thought of trying to find her way around without Danny's help. _No wonder most new ghosts lose it._ She thought, once again thanking whatever deity had placed Phantom on the Enterprise at the time of her death.

With a few exceptions, all the doors looked the same to her, but, after a few minutes of flying, Danny stopped at a particular door and knocked. Adrian tried desperately to cow the butterflies in her stomach. Besides Phantom, she had never spoken to a ghost before.

"Hold on." She heard from the other side of the door. "I'll be there in just a minute."

Several crashes and curses later, the door was flung open and a rather stocky blue ghost in overalls was forcefully evicted. An apparently young woman appeared at the door, wearing a housecoat and looking rather rumpled and very irritated. "I don't care what you thought you were doing!" She yelled at the figure. "If I catch you in my lair uninvited again, I swear I'll stuff you into one of your precious boxes and send you to Skulker, gift-wrapped!"

Not waiting for a reply, the female apparition extended her hand and shot a green beam at the object of her annoyance. With a pained yelp, he was sent tumbling away into the distance. It took Adrian a moment to recover from the shock, but Phantom was apparently unfazed. He and the female ghost looked very similar, Adrian noticed, white hair, green eyes, even their facial structures looked the same.

"Box Ghost is as annoying as ever I see." Danny was supremely amused. "Why was he in your lair?"

"Looking for boxes, what else?" The girl Phantom waved her hand irritably. "I don't know why he's singled me out, but this is the third time this month." For the first time, the woman looked past Danny and noticed Adrian. "You've brought company I see."

Danny smiled. "Adrian Whipstaf, this is my cousin, Dani Phantom…Dani with an i…Dani, this is the newest addition to the ghostly population." His cousin's eyes demanded a more thorough explanation. "She was an officer on my ship." He obliged. "There was an unfortunate accident a few days ago."

Her face immediately softened. "I'm sorry. The funeral just happened?" Adrian nodded her head numbly. "You poor thing, come on in."

Dani closed the door behind them as they entered. "So, cousin dearest volunteered to show you the ropes?" Adrian nodded again. "Good idea. The first little while can be disorienting if you don't have someone to guide you through it."

She bustled past them. "Can you hold yourself tangible long enough to have a cup of tea?" Adrian answered in the negative, she was tired from being tangible for most of the service that day. "No problem, we can just talk. Are you just showing her around Danny? Or is there some other reason?"

"Actually," Phantom said. "I was hoping that I could count on you to mentor her a bit once she's ready to move into the Zone for good. We both know it can get a bit rough in here, especially before her powers manifest a bit more."

Dani looked over to her and smiled. "Of course, I'm sure we'll get along great."

"I don't know if I'm ready to do that just yet…" Adrian tried to explain, but Dani cut her off.

"That's ok, my door's open whenever you feel you are."

The former Starfleet officer relaxed. There was something about these two that put her at ease. "So you're cousins?"

"In a matter of speaking." Danny answered. "Dani's the third halfa I was telling you about earlier. See, Vlad always wanted a half-ghost child to raise as his own…"

The rest of the night was spent in pleasant conversation. Pleasant, in fact, to the point where Adrian almost forgot the circumstances that brought her here. Which was of course what the two Phantoms were going for. When the time came for Danny to head back, Adrian decided to stay with Dani a bit more and work on her powers while Danny worked. With a promise to come back right after his shift, Danny disappeared into the Zone. As the door closed, Dani turned back to her. "So, what has Danny been having you work on?"

* * *

A/N: Wow! I think this is my longest yet. I honestly don't know where the idea for Adrian came from. It just occurred to me and I started writing. Actually, I think that this might be my favorite chapter yet. It seemed to flow a lot more naturally and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Hopefully, everyone reading this feels the same way. As always, if you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms I will gladly listen and try to reply where I can. Thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you for all of your patience with this. I make absolutely no excuses for how long it's been since I updated. I can't promise that I'll be any better, but now that my exams are done I should be able to be a little more regular. Unfortunately, my life is such that the summer is really the only time that I have any time to write.**

* * *

The Ghost Zone was a place of contradictions. It was an infinitely fluid place. The laws of physics so taken for granted in other realms had no meaning. Doors and islands and rocks were locked in an eternal drift, endlessly floating amid swirls of green ectoplasm. At the same time, nothing about the Ghost Zone ever changed. There was no sun, no day or night or any natural means with which to measure the passing of time. This was a realm of immortals to whom time had absolutely no meaning. And so, all remained the same. The islands floated, the inhabitants went about their business, always shrouded in the eerie, echoing silence that pervaded the Zone.

A small floating rock exploded close to Danielle Phantom's lair, blown to oblivion by a green ray.

"Good shot." Dani congratulated.

"Thanks." Adrian Whipstaff smiled, exceptionally pleased with herself.

Despite her initial hesitance, Adrian had been spending much of her time in the Ghost Zone, soaking up the ambient spectral energy and gaining strength. She had been practicing her ectoplasmic rays for weeks, but it was only in the last few days that she had been able to concentrate enough of her energy to shoot a beam. It had only been yesterday that she had managed any appreciable damage. It was still a far cry from her host's abilities (Dani could vaporize a good sized boulder if she put her mind to it), but the improvement was remarkable. Already, her natural form had returned to a tangible nature and she was in relative control of her invisibility. She could now get regular humans to see her (Danny and she had experimented briefly) and her abilities with ecto-rays were steadily improving. It helped that both of her teachers were so skilled and experienced. As a bonus, Adrian found herself honestly enjoying their company. Danielle in particular was like the big sister she had never had.

"You're still constricting the flow too much though." Danielle pointed out. "Relax, think about the blast and let it happen. Right now you're actually limiting your own power."

Adrian nodded, accepting the advice and filing it away for future reference. "I guess the ability to shoot blasts from my hands is still a little new to me." She smiled sheepishly. "Part of my mind still rebels at the very idea."

"Understandable," Dani assured. "It takes a while for the logical part of your brain to take a back burner and let you accept previously absurd ideas. There's a reason you don't see any Vulcan ghosts. Their logic just won't allow them to accept this existence."

"Now," She continued, suddenly all business. "Blast that floating rock over there."

Danielle was a difficult taskmaster. When the two returned to the lair hours later, Adrian was absolutely exhausted. The young ghost groaned and collapsed gracelessly onto the couch. "Everything hurts; I didn't know ghosts could even get stiff!"

Dani chuckled, settling beside her with much more grace. "Oh, we can get stiff, just ask Danny. Back in the old days, he could barely move some mornings."

"You're really improving." Dani added, leaning back to drape her arms across the sofa. "I bet you'll be ready to start your own lair soon."

Adrian's expression fell at the comment. She bit her lip, going quiet for a long moment. "Is that a hint?" She finally asked tentatively. She had been here for a relatively short time, but it was long enough to know that her hosts were important people. There had been several times where they had been summoned off to deal with some problem or another, or to speak with this 'Clockwork' person, always on matters of utmost urgency. There had been conversations that Adrian had not been allowed to participate in, crisis that one or both Phantoms had to avert, and a good number of what she later learned were important entities visiting the lair at any point in time. To be honest, she was beginning to feel more than a little superfluous. Surely they had better things to do with their time than babysit some barely manifested spirit.

Dani jerked her head abruptly to meet Adrian's eyes. "What? No, I didn't mean it that way!" She backpedaled, turning in her seat to better face the younger ghost. "I've really enjoyed having you around. Things were getting a little too boring around here for my tastes…Besides, now Danny actually has an excuse to show his face now and then. Before you came along, I hadn't seen him for months."

Dani placed a hand on Adrian's knee, "You can stay as long as you like, both Danny and I have told you that a hundred times."

Adrian didn't look convinced. "But, you must have so many more important things to be doing." She argued. "Everyone I've talked to has told me how lucky I am to have you and Danny as my mentors. I mean, I'm this newbie ghost, it just seems like you should be doing something more substantial with your time than wasting it on me." She turned her head, refusing to meet Dani's eyes.

"Adrian," The older female said softly. "Look at me."

Reluctantly, Adrian turned back and locked gazes with the halfa.

"That attention you mentioned?" Danielle started. "Neither Danny or I asked for it. We only put up with it because it makes it easier to help people, and that's the most important thing to us. That's the reason that Danny still lives out there, even though it's hard and painful for him. That's the reason we were so quick to help you in the first place. We exist to help people, and it doesn't matter how important that person is. In our minds, helping and befriending you is just as important anything else we might be called to do.

"To be perfectly honest…" Dani added lightly. "It's been refreshing. When you and I talk, you're talking to Danielle, not Dani Phantom. We're friends, and not just because of who I am or who my cousin is. I haven't had this sort of relationship with someone for a long time. Maybe even since Sam."

A small smile graced Adrian's lips, and she felt a little better. Relaxing muscles that she hadn't even realized she had tensed, Adrian shot a glance at the halfa beside her. "You really think I'm almost ready to build a lair?"

"Pretty sure," Danielle mused, "Definitely close enough that you should start thinking about it. I'll even help you get started."

"Can I choose its location?" The young ghost asked. "I mean, I'd really like it if my lair could be around here somewhere. That way we could still spend time together and I could still see Danny when he's here."

The female halfa smiled at her friend. "Adrian, I was about to insist on that very same thing." Dani leaned back again. "Speaking of my wayward cousin, when's he planning on showing up?"

"Should be any minute now if he was able to get away right after his shift," Adrian answered. "But I'm not sure if he did. Councilor Troi is being unusually persistent lately. Danny's really starting to get irritated."

"I don't doubt it." Danielle snorted. "Usually he can get even the most curious person to loose interest within a few weeks. It's been months now. This councilor of yours must be as stubborn as he is."

"Undoubtedly." Adrian agreed, having been on the other end of Councilor Troi's persistence because of her previously shy nature. "Maybe I'll head back for a little while, see if I can render some assistance. Could you open up a portal for me?"

Nodding agreement, Dani raised her hand and a swirling portal appeared in the center of the room. "Tell him to hurry up." She bid the young ghost. "Frostbite's been looking for another sparring match."

Assuring the halfa that she would, Adrian dove into the portal, heading for a plane of existence that was feeling less and less like home.

* * *

"Lieutenant Fenton!"

Danny bit back curses in several languages, today was obviously not his day. First it had been a longer than normal day at work. Several secondary systems had crashed, leaving the entire engineering corps running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to get everything working again. And now the overly enthusiastic ships councilor (positively the last person Danny wanted to see at this moment) and the dashing first officer had cornered him the corridor. Carefully schooling his face into an expression of formal indifference, he turned to his unwelcome company.

"Councilor," He greeted. "Sir. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually, I was hoping now would be a good time to show me some of those moves of yours." Riker grinned. "You mentioned before that you've picked up a lot of different styles…and you did say you'd show me sometime. I'd have asked sooner, but the last couple of weeks haven't really allowed time for it."

"I'd be very interested in watching as well," The councilor piped in. "And perhaps we could talk a bit afterwards, we haven't had a chance lately."

_There's a reason for that_. Danny thought uncharitably.

"Unless you've already made plans for this afternoon?" The councilor and first officer were looking at him expectantly.

_Yes I have plans, I'm heading into a pocket dimension inhabited by the spirits of the dead in order to help that ensign that died a few weeks ago tighten the target radius of her ecto-blasts. _"No, I was just going to spend some time in my quarters."

The first officer's face broke into a wide grin. "Excellent! Why don't we grab a bite to eat and head to the training room from there?"

With a definite lack of credible excuses, Danny had no choice but to follow. _No_, He thought again, _This is definitely not my day. Someone up there hates me._

He steadfastedly refused to become drawn into conversation on the way down to Ten-Forward or during their meal, answering any direct questions with as vague of answers as he could get away with and never adding his opinion to the mix. Instead, he spent his time pondering the thin line he would soon have to walk. He had to be careful not to appear too skilled, but at the same time, Riker had already seen that he had talent. Hiding too much of his skill now would be even more suspicious than appearing barely adequate. He had to find some way to portray himself as good enough to knock the first officer off his feet, yet not good enough to be considered overly unusual.

Eventually the First Officer had obviously had enough of speaking to the proverbial brick wall, because he suddenly announced that he thought that they had digested enough to head down to the training room

Danny prayed for some sort of crisis to happen so that he would have an excuse to leave his 'hosts', but his bad luck held. Now that he was finally off shift, everything on the ship seemed to be running smoothly.

Before long, he was facing Will on the practice mat, Councilor Troi observing from the side. As Will launched his first attack, Danny once again sternly reminded himself to hold back.

_You are an ordinary human, you are an ordinary human, there is nothing strange about you, you are an ordinary human, _He kept repeating to himself.

The commander was good, he had to admit. But given that Danny had centuries of experience under his belt, the blows still seemed to be coming in slow motion.

Danny carefully weighed each move before he made it, careful not to let too much shine through. He easily blocked the more straight forward attacks, only letting the commander hit him if it was a truly skilled blow. He forced himself to act slowly, giving the commander time to block or dodge and only letting himself strike if Riker left himself open. The match went on for many minutes, but at the end, Danny felt he had done a good enough job of acting to take some suspicion off himself.

Will bent over his knees, trying to catch his breath. "I said it before and I'll say it again," He gasped. "You should transfer to security…I haven't had a work out like that since the last time I sparred with Worf."

He grinned over at the young Lieutenant, but if he was hoping that the sparring had loosened Danny up at all, he was sadly mistaken. The younger man was still standing rimrod straight with a passionless expression on his face. In fact, if at all possible, he looked even less at ease than when they had started. Will's expression turned incredulous as he noticed something else.

"You haven't even broken a sweat!"

Something flickered in Fenton's eyes, but it was there and gone too quickly for Will to identify it. "Appearances can be deceiving sir."

The First Officer gave him a puzzled, slightly suspicious look, but didn't press the point. "Alright, have it your way. Just letting you know, if you ever want to change departments I'll sign the paperwork myself."

As they toweled the worst of the sweat of their face and arms (or at least, Riker toweled sweat off), Riker tried once again to strike up a conversation. "You weren't joking when you said you knew a lot of styles. I've never seen some of the moves you used back there."

Danny relaxed slightly with the change in subject. "I've combined a lot of those styles into something fairly unique sir. Those moves are mostly variations of more common ones."

Riker nodded. "It's certainly impressive. I wonder if you could show me that ankle trip you used a few minutes ago again in slow motion? I would love to pull it out on Worf the next time we spar."

Danny considered for a split second before nodding. There wasn't anything particularly unusual about that trip. It was indeed, as he had said, a combination of several well known, _**modern**_,martial arts styles. There was nothing about it that could question the credibility of his story. Moving back to the practice mat, he began to teach Commander Riker the move.

Meanwhile, Deanna Troi had watched the entire thing. Although her natural tendency was to be drawn to Will in situations like this, she forced herself to watch Lieutenant Fenton, remembering Geordi's words to her months earlier when Fenton had gone through basic combat training.

By the end of the match, Deanna decided that she agreed with Geordi, Fenton was holding back. It wasn't obvious, only someone who was looking for it would've noticed the signs. The Lieutenant was very good at hiding his skill, but there were little things that gave it away, the little twitch in his eyes right before he got hit, the quirk of his mouth whenever Will blocked one of his strikes. Most tellingly, as Will had noticed, the lieutenant had not shed one drop of sweat.

_Why is he holding back_? She kept asking herself. _What is he hoping to accomplish?_ This case with Fenton was frustrating her more than anything else in her life right now. Not for the first time, Deanna wished she was telepathic rather than empathic. Privacy and etiquette aside, she truly wanted to know what was going on inside that black haired head. Months of working on the man and nothing! Not a crack in the armor! Not a single clue as to what his problem was.

Well that's not true she supposed. There was that incident right after that tragedy a few weeks ago. Fenton had stayed and watched the coffin float away, even after everyone else had left. When she had asked Geordi, he had assured her that there was nothing different about Fenton's relationship with Adrian Whipstaff than anyone else. He hadn't treated her any differently than his other coworkers and there was no evidence to suggest they had even spoken to each other outside the engineering deck. Yet he had spent several minutes, just looking out at the coffin. The only thing that Deanna could think of is that the ensign's death reminded him somehow of some tragedy in his past. She had been meaning to confront him about it, but there just hadn't been time.

That stops now, she resolved. She had Fenton cornered here and she wasn't letting him out of her sight until she got some answers. Movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye, and she instinctively glanced to the side. A moment later her entire head swung in that direction, eyes wide. There, floating a good ten feet off the ground, was the late Adrian Whipstaff. Their eyes met and held for a moment. The young woman's hands rose entreatingly, as if asking for help, mouth open in a silent moan. Deanna closed her eyes tightly, the opened them again. The vision was gone.

Shaky and pale, the councilor got up and approached the two males who had just finished their session. Will gave her a concerned look as soon as he noticed her.

"Are you alright?" He asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

If possible, her face got even paler and she shook her head violently. If she had been more in control of herself, she might have found Fenton's slight emotional spike at the word 'ghost' interesting, but at the moment she was thinking of other things.

"No, no, I'm fine." She assured. "I'm just not feeling to well suddenly, I think I'll swing by sick bay."

"I'll come with you." Riker immediately offered, guiding her to the door. "Thanks for the workout Lieutenant." He called over his shoulder.

Danny's smirk grew into an all out grin once their backs were turned. "You enjoyed that entirely too much." He muttered seemingly to thin air.

Riker could've sworn he heard a female giggle as the door closed behind him.

* * *

**A/N: So? Was it worth the wait? I wanted it to be longer, but this is the way it turned out so…meh. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Reviews are wonderful things. Please feed the author!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I would like to apologize to one specific reviewer who specifically requested that the Borg not be involved in this story. Sorry, but this chapter was already written, and by the time I got your message the Borg were already a pretty important part of the story. Please, please, please keep reading anyway! You might be pleasantly surprised.**

**To everyone else, thank you again for all of your support and kind words. Every review gives me a reason to keep writing.**

**So, without further delay, I give you chapter 6. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

"I don't understand it." Dr. Crusher muttered as she looked at Deanna's test results.

"Why," Deanna asked, more than a little disturbed. "What's wrong with me?"

"Well that's the thing," Dr. Crusher said thoughtfully. "As far as I can tell, nothing."

"I distinctly saw an ensign that supposedly died weeks ago. That doesn't happen if nothing's wrong." Deanna shot.

"I know that Deanna," Dr. Crusher soothed. "But I can't find anything. You're the third person this week that's come in claiming to have seen Ensign Whipstaff, but I can't find anything wrong with any of you. There are no toxins or hallucinogens in your system, your stress level is healthy, brain activity is normal…at first I just thought that it was a psychological reaction to the tragedy, but it's looking less and less likely. Of the people who've seen the image, only two of them even knew the ensign. I have no idea what's going on. For all I know, it could be some practical joker with a holographic projector."

"The joke's in bad taste then." The councilor pointed out. "There are still a lot of people hurting about that incident."

"I agree." Beverly nodded. "But right now it's the only thing I can think of. With three separate incidences, I'll have to mention this to the Captain. If there's something wrong with the air composition or something, he needs to be made aware of it. Don't worry, we'll find out what's going on soon enough."

Captain Jean Luc Picard pinched the bridge of his nose, allowing some of his exasperation to shine through, as he was alone in his ready room. Ghosts! What next? Or more likely, some fool running around with an image projector, in which case the Captain fully meant to see the perpetrator punished severely. Not only had the joke (if that's what it was) gotten way out of hand, reaching the point where it was wasting both the captain's time and several of the senior crew's, but the Ensign's death had just happened weeks ago and their were still many in mourning. Bad taste didn't even begin to describe this callous disregard for the mental state of one's fellow shipmates. On the other hand, the Captain sighed, there could actually be something wrong with the air filtration or whatnot that could be causing hallucinations. Stranger things had certainly happened aboard the Enterprise, and it couldn't be discounted as a possibility. He made a mental note to put a group of engineers looking for such scientific explanations.

The idea that there actually was a ghost on board never even entered his mind. Not being a superstitious man by nature, he immediately assumed that there was a conventional answer to the entire situation.

Temporarly putting the matter out of his mind, he turned his attention to the newest orders that had come in from Starfleet. The Borg had been seen uncomfortably close to one of the Federation's outposts, and the Enterprise was to go and assist in the evacuation. As there was no way to tell when the Borg would be back, time was of the utmost essence. Starfleet wanted the Borg returning to an empty settlement, with all Federation personnel long gone.

Making a mental note to straighten this whole ghost nonsense out after this latest crisis was taken care of, Captain Picard left his ready room and took his customary place in the captain's chair.

"Mr. Data." He commanded the white skinned android sitting at the helm. "Set course for the Epsilon system. Warp 8."

* * *

A few hours before they arrived, the captain held a meeting of the senior staff to go over the last minute details. He didn't need to remind them that speed and efficiency were of the utmost importance. No one knew when the Borg would be back.

"Besides the Enterprise, there are two small cargo ships that are going to assisting." Commander Riker informed. "They're privately owned and had stopped briefly at the outpost to resupply. When this crisis appeared, they volunteered their help. They'll mainly work as a shipping line between us and the planet. The transporters will be working at full capacity, so between them, the cargo ships, and our own shuttles, we should be able to get all the essential personnel and equipment out of there quickly."

The rest of the staff nodded in accord.

"The technicians on the outpost have requested a group of engineers to assist with the dismantling and relocation of several key pieces of technology." The Captain added. "Commander Leforge, pick six of your best and be ready to beam down to the planet as soon as we enter orbit. We don't have a lot of time, so they need to be fast, efficient, and competent."

Geordi nodded, already putting together a list of possibilities in his head.

"I want long range sensors on a continuous sweep from the moment we drop out of warp." The Captain said. "If the Borg come, we need to have enough warning to get all personnel off world and get out of there. We will try to save as much of the equipment as we can, but at the end of the day, I would rather leave the entire settlement for the Borg as long as all the people are gotten out safely. That is our main objective. Dismissed."

Everyone nodded in accord and made to get up from the table, they had their orders. Riker caught Geordi before the chief engineer left the room.

"Is Lieutenant Fenton by any chance on the list of possible engineers you're bringing down?" He asked.

"I was thinking about it." Geordi admitted. "But he is a junior officer, it's completely against procedure."

"I would forget procedure in this case." Riker said. "We're dealing with the Borg here, this could go bad very quickly. If the worst happens, you need someone down there who can look after themselves. Everyone has at least basic combat training, but Fenton is good. I was sparring with him yesterday and he could probably outfight half of the officers on our security force. If something untoward happens down there, I know I would feel better knowing at least one engineer can handle themselves the way Fenton can."

Geordi considered it for a minute, then decided that his friend was absolutely right. The decision wasn't going to make him any friends with his senior officers, but pragmatism was more important in this case. There was a time for the rulebook to fly out the window. He smiled up at Will. "Thanks for the tip." He said before tapping his comm. Badge. "Commander Leforge to Lieutenant Fenton, please report to the engineering deck."

There was a moment of silence before Fenton's voice answered. "On my way sir. I'll be there momentarily."

* * *

Danny suppressed a groan and shot a glare at his cousin, who was trying desperately not to laugh and failing miserably. As soon as Danny had been rescued by Adrian, they had fled into the zone for some much needed rest and relaxation, only to be ambushed by Frostbite who had been looking to get Danny on the sparring floor for weeks, but hadn't been able to because the halfa had been so busy with Adrian. He wasn't going to take no for an answer and Adrian and Danny had spent the next few hours in the far frozen while Danny and Frostbite beat on each other. If Will Riker had been impressed with the display back on the Enterprise, he would've been left in awe of the feats preformed by the combatants here.

The fight had just ended and Frostbite had invited them to stay for supper when a crisis had arisen in a different part of the ghost zone (something about Walker throwing Ghost Writer in jail because of a rather unflattering article), and Danny had had to take off before he had even caught his breath, much less had anything to eat.

After that had been taken care of, Danny had grabbed a quick bite and had headed out to help Adrian with the radius of her ecto-blasts. They had just gotten back, Danny collapsing, exhausted, onto the couch, when his comm. Badge had gone off.

Danny leaned back in his seat and rubbed his hands over his face. Someone up there definitely hated him lately.

"No rest for the weary I guess." Dani piped cheerfully.

Danny gave an exasperated growl. "Apparently." He muttered, voice muffled behind his hands. Holding the pose for a second, Danny growled again and made to stand up.

"Do you want something to eat on the way?" Dani asked seriously.

Danny shook the offer away. "Commander Leforge will get suspicious if I take too long." He explained before opening a portal back to his quarters. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He said over his shoulder.

"Stay out of trouble." Dani called after him.

Danny raised one of his hands absently in acknowledgment as he walked though the swirling rift between worlds and disappeared from view. The portal had barely closed on the other side before Danny was changed back and heading towards the door. He had had enough close calls of late, he didn't need anything else to make his superior officers suspicious of him.

Arriving on the engineering level, he quickly approached Commander Leforge. "You needed to see me sir?"

Geordi looked up from the data disk he had been examining. "Oh good, you're the last to get here." He motioned for Danny to join a group of five other (and from what Danny could tell, more senior) engineers. "I'll be with you right away."

After a short wait, the Commander came over and addressed the group. "As you know, we'll be dropping out of warp by the Epsilon system pretty soon, where we'll be evacuating the outpost there. The technicians of the facility have requested a group of engineers from Enterprise to help them with some of the equipment relocation, and we're it. As soon as we make orbit, the Captain wants us down there. I don't need to tell you that we need to be fast. I don't think any of us here want to find out what assimilation is like first hand." He then fell to giving what individual orders he could with the information given by the outpost.

After gaining his own orders, Danny sort of tuned out and turned to wondering why he was there. This sort of mission shouldn't be given to a junior officer like him. He knew he was competent, but not so much that he should've beaten out all the more senior officers on the engineering deck. He glanced suspiciously at Commander Leforge. Was this some new ploy of Councilor Troi's? He immediately dismissed the idea, she wouldn't play games when the situation was as serious as this. Still, Commander Leforge had to have some incentive to break procedure like this. He had to know it wouldn't make some of the more senior engineers happy. He had no more time to worry about it though. Commander Leforge had finished his little speech and they were heading down to the transporter rooms.

Once they were planet side, a sort of nervous energy took over the group, and any thoughts of procedure or assignment rational went right out the window. Danny lost himself completely in his 'working' mindset. He had a job and wouldn't allow himself to worry about anything else until that job was taken care of. He had been assigned to help several of the outpost technicians in the dismantling of a few fairly unwieldy pieces of equipment.

The head technician in the group was a balding man in his sixties, slightly overweight and with a sharp voice that was very much at odds with his grandfatherly appearance. He was pleasant enough, but he tolerated no fooling around and was very business oriented. Danny found that he liked the man, he could respect a man like this.

The next few hours were a blur of frenzied activity. Whenever he finished with one job, he was immediately moved to the next thing that needed doing. No one dared to slow down or ask for a break, though there were several people nearing exhaustion, they could rest when they were safely away from the Borg.

The evacuation was going more smoothly than anyone could have hoped for, and many were beginning to think that they would be long gone by the time the Borg showed their faces. It was about that time that disaster struck

The emergency signal rang out just as Danny was climbing out of what felt like the thousandth piece of machinery that day. The Borg had been spotted dropping out of warp. Their time was officially up.

Within itself, this wouldn't have been so bad, there would have to be some equipment left behind, but they had been prepared for this possibility. Everyone still planet side was to make their way to a designated meeting place so that they could be emergency transported en mass on board and the Enterprise could get the heck out of dodge. No, the problem wasn't that the Borg showed up.

The two private vessels, panicked at the sight of the Borg and trying desperately to escape the planet, lost track of each other's flight plans and collided, falling twisted and entangled onto the main building of the settlement in a ball of flaming metal. Unfortunately for all on the surface, the main generator had not yet been dismantled. When the doomed ships hit, the anti-matter core of the generator was breached, sending the entire building up in a truly spectacular explosion.

Danny had been heading to his designated extraction point when the ground under his feet rolled and bucked with the explosion, sending him careening headfirst into the wall at an impressive velocity.

Cursing vindictively and rubbing his head, Danny got back on his feet, taking stock of his surroundings. The entire hallway had been turned into a disaster zone. The ceiling and walls were cracked and dust was thick in the air, there was no power, save the emergency lighting, and the floor was warped crazily and covered in debris. He could hear pained groans and calls for help from those trapped under the rubble.

Danny groaned. There was no way that everyone would be able to get to their transport sites. As an engineer, he knew exactly what the Enterprise's transportation capacities were. It would've been simple to transport everyone onto the ship if they were all gathered in a single place, now that the sensors would have to search the people out a few at a time, it would take considerably longer. It was time they didn't have.

Well, Danny thought, we'll take care of it when it happens, right now the best thing is to get as many to the transport site as possible and worry about the rest later.

Usually Danny was very careful about his ghost powers, using them only as a last resort, but for this situation, he made an exception. Thankfully, most of the people he helped were too worried about survival to notice that he easily moved pieces of rubble that he never should've been able to or even that his hand sometimes seemed to go right through the pieces trapping them. They were too thankful to be free. Danny worked feverishly, not stopping to help people once they were free of the rubble but simply telling them to get to the extraction point and then moving on to the next buried victim. The injured would be treated on board the ship, his job was to just get them there. He was also careful to keep his power just below the surface, ready to be called at a moments notice. The Borg would start landing eventually, he wanted to be ready when they did. Danny wasn't entirely sure what affect the Borg's assimilation nanites would have on him, considering his nature, but he decided that he would rather not find out. He had proven himself immune to nanites before, but he would rather not chance it.

"Lieutenant!" Someone called to him from the side. Turning to look, he saw Commander Leforge, Commander Worf, and Commander Riker coming towards him.

Lifting the last piece of rubble of the buried woman he had been aiding, he helped her to her feet, then approached his superior officers.

"Sirs," He said, nodding his head respectfully. "What's the situation?"

"Not good." Riker scowled. "We have a lot of people hurt, some of them dead, and the Borg could be landing at any time. The Enterprise is trying to buy us some time, but…" He trailed off worriedly.

Danny nodded, he had expected something of the sort. "Orders sir?" He asked.

"We split up." Riker said. "And we keep doing exactly what you were doing before we came, getting people unburied and getting them to the extraction point." He looked at the two other senior staff present. "Geordi and Worf will make their way to the east side of the complex. Lieutenant, you're with me, we'll work our way west. First sign of the Borg, and you get yourselves out." Nodding assent, Commanders Leforge and Worf started off, leaving Riker and Danny alone in the dust-filled corridor.

Inwardly, Danny cursed. He could've helped a lot more people with his ghost powers (having the ability to turn intangible was invaluable in these circumstances), but he would have to seriously tone it down with Commander Riker watching. He briefly toyed with the idea of conveniently getting 'lost' so that he could work unhindered, but decided against it. That would certainly lead to trouble he didn't want if he wanted to remain in Starfleet. Danny ground his teeth in frustration.

The two didn't speak while they worked, besides the occasional "Over here!" or "Help me with this piece." In this, at least, they had found common ground, saving as many people as possible. They made a steady pace towards the west side of the building, unburying, sending the victims on to the extraction point if they could walk, and enlisting someone to carry them if they couldn't.

Danny had just lifted a piece of rubble on a young man's leg and looked up to see how Riker was doing, when he saw the telltale static in the air behind Riker of something being transported. "Sir, behind you!" He called out.

Riker turned around immediately, just in time to get an arm in the face as the Borg drone smacked him off to the side. Riker hit the wall with a sickening thud and crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The man Danny had just freed had taken one look at the Borg, and had run the other way, leaving the two Starfleet officers on their own.

Anyone else would have probably been angry at the man's cowardice, but Danny was actually quite relieved he had acted the way he did. Now there were no witnesses to what he was about to do.

There was no other option really, he couldn't leave Riker here for the Borg and the best way to get him out was as Phantom.

He looked over at Riker, relieved to see that the man was still breathing, then turned to the two drones that had transported down. His voice was perfectly casual, as if he was discussing the weather. "Now see, you shouldn't have done that, because now there's no one watching. And annoying or not, he is my superior officer. Now I'm going to have to kick your ass."

Dropping into a defensive crouch he smiled and let go of the power inside him. It washed through him, he could feel the power rolling and boiling to the surface. "I would run if I were you." He told the two drones calmly, his voice reverberating eerily with its ghostly echo.

The Borg had never encountered a being such as this, and as such, did hesitate a moment, allowing Danny the first shot. Danny was almost certain that his ectoblasts would be effective, their energy was far different than the phaser fire that the drones were shielded against, but he had never fought against Borg before, and with a man's life on the line, it was better not to go on assumptions. _Sometimes the more primitive ways are best_, he thought to himself with a smile.

The temperature in the corridor plummeted even further as Danny's eyes turned from green to an icy blue. Blue haze surrounded his hands as the moisture in the surrounding air was exposed to the extreme cold, crystallizing on contact. Extending both hands, he shot off two well-aimed streams of ice, freezing the two Borg where they stood. Danny had no idea if the solution would be permanent, but it would certainly last long enough to get Commander Riker out of here and get back on board the Enterprise.

On the other hand, there was no way he was going to leave anyone to the Borg, and Commander Riker and he hadn't finished their circuit. How many people were there still trapped and unable to get out? Danny looked down the corridor and bit his lip, torn. He couldn't leave the Commander, but he couldn't leave the people. Thankfully, his dilemma was almost immediately answered in the form of Commander Leforge and Commander Worf's voices. They had obviously finished with the east side and had decided to work their way west.

This, however good for those trapped in the rubble, left Danny in a less than desirable position. The Commander was unconscious, but there was no way to know if he remembered that it was a Borg drone that knocked him out, and there were two drones frozen solid in the corridor with no explanation as to how they got that way. If he were Fenton, the two officers would wonder how he managed to freeze the drones. If he were Phantom when they walked up it would create even more awkward questions, and if he were invisible they would obviously want to know where Fenton got to, as he was supposed to be with Will.

Eventually, Danny decided on the least exposing course. Duplicating, he instructed his duplicate to turn the two drones invisible and intangible while he turned human. There was enough rubble to suggest there might have been a small cave in, and Danny planned on using that as excuse for the Commander's injury. Any memory of Riker's concerning the drones could be attested to the fact that he had a head injury.

The plan was full of holes, but it was the best Danny could come up with on short notice. He didn't have a lot of time; Commanders Leforge and Worf were almost within visual range. He quickly went over to check his Commanding Officer and was more than a little alarmed to see Riker's eyes open. Had he seen Danny transform? A quick check though suggested that Riker was still far too incoherent to have seen anything incriminating. Or if he did, it could just be blamed on the concussion.

The two Commanders came into view just as Danny was looping Will's arm over his shoulder, supporting the larger man's weight. They increased their pace once they saw their friend was injured.

"What happened?" Worf demanded.

"Cave in, sir." Danny responded. "Just a small one, but enough to knock a few good sized pieces loose. The Commander took one in the head."

Worf regarded him for a long moment before nodding and holstering his phaser. "Here," He offered. "I'll take him."

Having no means or desire to argue, Danny allowed the Klingon to take the Commander's weight off him.

"Worf to Enterprise, four to beam up." The security officer said, tapping his comm. Badge.

Commander Leforge noted Danny's conflicted look as the young Lieutenant gazed back down the corridor. "Don't worry." He said. "We're the last to get back on board, there's no one left here to help."

That was good to hear, but Danny had already deduced that, or Worf would've never sent them all up. That wasn't what he was worried about. He was thinking about the two Borg standing there frozen, hopefully dead. The Borg were a hive mind, what one saw, they all saw. And those two had seen Danny transform. No, what Danny was worried about as he was transported back to the ship was whether or not he had just revealed himself to one of the Federation's worst enemies.

**A/N: Before anyone says anything, I know that it seems weird that Danny can receive messages on his communicator while in the Ghost Zone, but I assumed that after so many years of jumping back and forth between dimensions, he's developed some sort of signal relay or something that allows him to keep up on things in the real world.**

**So…first chapter with a little action in it. I'm pretty new to action scenes. So any comments or constructive criticism are more than welcome. Thank you so much for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Your words and encouragements honestly make my day.

As always, I own absolutely nothing that you recognize.

* * *

In a distant corner of the Ghost Zone floated a tower that few knew of and fewer dared to venture near. After all, it was not wise to anger the Master of Time, and no ghost wanted the formidable specter to think they were trespassing. The resident of the tower was fearsomely powerful and very rarely seen, showing himself only in times of greatest trial. Only a select few felt welcome to come and go in his territory.

Inside his tower, Clockwork peered at the many time portals that lay open before him. Different events in different times, and Clockwork monitored them all. He alone knew the twists that time would take. He alone held the knowledge of all events, all times, and the responsibility of guarding the paths of the universe.

Sometimes he gave a push in the right direction.

Sometimes he was forced to directly interfere.

And sometimes the best thing to do was nothing at all.

Clockwork shifted uncomfortably and scowled at the open portals. That last course of action was perhaps the most difficult of all. The future shown in the swirling depths full of darkness, and in typical fashion, Danny was right in the middle of the whole mess.

Clockwork was not the most social ghost, but he had come to know Danny quite well in recent centuries. He would even call the halfa a friend. They had both helped each other on numerous occasions and Clockwork had interfered with the timeline several times on Danny's behalf…but not this time. This time his interference would bring nothing but harm. This time Danny was on his own.

It was galling to find himself so helpless, so powerless, but the integrity of the timeline came before his friendship with Phantom…a sentiment that Danny himself would understand quite well.

"You're getting as bad as the Observants." A voice snorted irreverently from behind the Time Master.

Clockwork did not turn around. "I often disagree with the Observants Q…and yet I find myself agreeing with them more than I do with you. Any damage the Observants wreak is through inaction, and therefore easy for me to correct. But you…you treat the universe as a child might treat a playground. You have little care for the consequences of your 'entertainments', or the work I must do to set things right."

Q made a sour face. "I hope you didn't just call me here for a lecture, because if you did I'm leaving."

"No," Clockwork said, finally turning. "I called you here to offer a warning. You will turn your attention somewhere other than the Alpha Quadrant for now. What happens now must happen, and must be allowed to happen without interference from you or me."

Q pouted. "But Jean-Luc is one of my favorite lower beings to play with. He's so much fun to irritate."

"No," Clockwork snapped sharply. "The Enterprise is in the center what comes. You must leave it alone Q, look somewhere else for your entertainment."

Q crossed his arms and scowled at the Time Master. "You're no fun." He declared, and with a flash of light he was gone.

Clockwork sighed and turned back to the time windows. In the center, Danny Phantom made his way to his cousin's lair. "Good luck my friend." He whispered to the empty air. "For what comes next, I cannot help you."

* * *

The first thing that Will Riker noticed when he regained consciousness was the splitting pain in his forehead and he let out an involuntary groan. Trying to open his eyes, the bright med bay lights stabbed like knives and he quickly snapped them shut. He heard hurried footsteps approach his bed before Doctor Crusher's voice permeated his foggy thoughts.

"Will?"

Bracing himself against the light, Commander Riker squinted up at the doctor hovering above him. Her face broke out into a wide smile once she realized that he was conscious. "Welcome back." She greeted. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I've been sucker punched by a Klingon." Riker groaned, the pain in his head now throbbing in time with his heartbeat.

Doctor Crusher's lips twitched. "I'll give you something to help with the pain." She promised. "You're lucky, if that cave in had been any bigger you could've ended up with a lot worse than a moderate concussion."

Riker's brow furrowed. "Cave-in?"

"The corridor you were working in was unstable." Doctor Crusher explained. "You were hit in the head with a piece of rubble when the ceiling collapsed. Lieutenant Fenton helped get you out."

The furrow in Riker's brow grew. "What about the drones?"

Doctor Crusher frowned. "Drones? There were no drones."

"Yes there were." Riker insisted, trying to sit up. "Fenton told me to look out, and there were two drones standing behind me…everything went black after that."

Beverly's hand stopped him before he could get vertical. "You have a head injury Will," she said gently, easing him down. "The mind does strange things to a person when they have a concussion. Worf and Geordi came on the scene while Fenton was trying to extract you and there were no drones in the corridor then. And Fenton didn't mention any drones in his report either."

Will continued to resist for only a moment more before relaxing against the bed. Reassured that her patient would not be attempting to sit up again, Doctor Crusher removed her hand and began running diagnostic scans.

Will was silent throughout the examination, still trying to piece together fragments of memory. The Doctor's explanation made perfect sense after all. If there had been Borg down there, certainly one of the three conscious Starfleet officers on the scene would have mentioned it. His memory of the drones had to be the concussion talking. Still, there was something nagging in the back of his mind. Something that insisted he had seen what he had seen and there was something off about this whole situation.

Back in the ghost zone, Danny was taking out his frustration on a rock field. Green bolt after green bolt streamed from his hands, actually vaporizing the floating boulders in his anger.

Dani came to find him after he had been at it for about half an hour. Arching an eyebrow at the decimated field, she turned a wry glance onto her cousin. "Want to talk about it?" She asked casually.

"Not really." He muttered, taking aim…FLASH…Another boulder disappeared.

Dani refused to be deterred. "What's the problem, this councilor Troi again?"

Danny laughed without humour. "I wish." He muttered, raising his hand again. "Troi, I can handle. This could be actual trouble."

"What?" Dani demanded exasperatedly. "What's the matter?"

Danny was quiet for a few minutes. "I think the Borg might know about me." He admitted.

Dani gave him an alarmed look. "Say what?"

"Down on the planet we were evacuating." Danny explained. "Two drones had my superior officer down and I had to save him. The easiest way to do it was in ghost form."

"Two drones attacked you and you let them get away to report?" Dani looked like she couldn't believe her ears.

Danny shot her a look of contempt. "Of course I didn't let them get away. But they have a hive mind remember? I have no idea if the two drones relayed any information before I turned them into Borgcicles."

"So this entire thing could be over absolutely nothing." Dani pointed out.

"Maybe." Danny admitted. "Or maybe the Borg know what I am now."

"No," Dani corrected. "They might know that you aren't entirely human, maybe they've even figured out that you're some sort of energy based life form, but I highly doubt they have any clue about your _true nature_. There's no way that they know you're a halfa. **No one** outside of the ghost zone knows about halfas. Even paranormal experts still think we're a scientific impossibility remember?"

Danny paused with his arm half extended. He sighed quietly and dropped his hand back to his side. Maybe he was just overreacting. Dani was right, even if the Borg had gotten a transmission from the two doomed drones, there was little to no chance that they would understand what they saw. He had only done what he had to do, there was no point in beating himself up about it. He gave a small, self-depreciating laugh and shook his head.

Dani joined his laughter, moving over and wrapping her arm around his shoulders. "Oh cousin mine," She said. "I know you've been keeping secrets for a long time and you've gotten very good at it, but sometimes you're just too paranoid for your own good."

"And sometimes you're not nearly as paranoid as you should be." Danny shot right back with a smile.

"Maybe." Dani agreed easily, "But I'm not the one still trying to live a double life. Paranoia isn't nearly as valuable to my existence as it is to yours."

Danny smiled, his cousin always knew how to make him feel better.

"Come on." Dani coaxed. "Dinner's ready and you should really have something to eat before your next shift."

Danny, noticing the rumbling of his stomach for the fist time, readily agreed.

Adrian was reading a book on Dani's couch when the two walked in. "There anything left for me to practice on out there, or did you vaporize them all?" She asked casually, directing the question to Danny.

"Hilarious." He drawled. "Don't worry, even if I had completely destroyed the field, it wouldn't be hard to find you some new rocks to blast. The Zone seems to have an endless supply."

Adrian just smiled and shook her head before going back to her reading.

The change in the young ghost was remarkable, Danny thought. Granted, he had never really bothered to get to know her before her death, but she had seemed quiet, withdrawn. It was a far cry from the confidant woman sitting comfortably on his cousin's couch. Apparently death became her.

His train of thought was broken by Dani's voice. "Hey! This food isn't getting any warmer you know. You guys coming or what?"

Stifling chuckles, both Danny and Adrian obediently made their way to the kitchen.

The relaxed dinner passed, in Danny's opinion, altogether too quickly. He wanted to savor every moment he had in the Zone. An entire colony worth of refugees on the Enterprise meant that work was going to be crazy. It also meant that he wasn't going to be able to spend much time with Adrian and Dani until things quieted down.

Danny recognized a dangerous pattern in his thoughts of late. By helping Adrian he was spending more time in the Zone than he had in decades and it was taking more and more effort to return to the Enterprise. Every moment he spent in the material world he found himself thinking about what he would do once he left.

Maybe Dani and Frostbite were right, maybe it was time to carve out a place for himself here, away from the material plane and all of its pain. Then he winced, thinking of all the people he had saved on his last mission, people that would be assimilated even now if he were not aboard the Enterprise.

_No,_ he thought, _the time isn't right yet. Clockwork said that I would know when it was time for me to move on._ Still, it was with a heavy sigh that Danny made a portal back to his quarters.

Given his less than cheery thoughts, Danny was relieved when no one tried to speak to him on his way down to engineering. Likewise, he was mostly left alone during his shift. That suited him just fine. Today more than ever, he just wanted to get work over with a minimum of social interaction. He had even begun to hope that he would get his wish.

Then the call came in. Councilor Troi's replicator was acting up, and could someone please come up to take care of the problem? Danny sighed and rested his head briefly against the hull plating. Troi and LeForge had been conspiring against him from the beginning. There was no way that his commander would forego this opportunity. Sure enough, a few minutes later Danny found himself on his way up to the Councilor's quarters.

Trying desperately to eliminate the sour look he knew was on his face, the halfa rung and was duly given permission to enter.

"Lieutenant Fenton!" The councilor sounded absolutely delighted. Danny fought back a grimace. "I had no idea it would be you coming up."

Danny just nodded. "Yes ma'am, you said something about your replicator?"

Deanna Troi blinked, tearing her eyes away from his face where she had been staring with disheartening intensity. "Yes," She said, glancing toward said machine. "It seems to be having trouble with the final materialization. Everything is just coming out as multicoloured goop."

Thankful of the excuse to get to work and _not_ talk to the councilor, Danny began to examine the machine. He managed to work in a few more blessed minutes of silence before the councilor just couldn't help herself.

"I haven't found the time to talk to you in a while Daniel, how have you been?"

Danny tried desperately not to flinch at the hated name, not even looking up from his work. "About the same as the last time we spoke Councilor. There isn't much to tell."

"No new friends, communications from home?" She pressed.

"No." Danny answered her flatly. "As I said, nothing's really changed."

The room faded to silence for several minutes, and Danny was beginning to be hopeful that that would be the end of it when Councilor Troi spoke again.

"I hear you were chosen for that away mission a few days ago."

Danny had to grit his teeth in order to keep his emotions from running away from him. Why couldn't she just leave well enough alone? Considering the events of the last few days, that mission was the **last** thing he wanted to talk about. "Yes ma'am," He said, managing to keep his voice calm and level. "I'm just happy that we got everyone out in time."

"I hear you were the one to rescue Commander Riker." Deanna added, a bit more hesitantly. "I feel I should thank you for that. Will is a very good friend of mine."

Danny dismissed the comment. "I didn't do anything really. Commanders LeForge and Worf were there almost right away."

"Still." Deanna smiled. "From what I hear, you behaved most befitting for a Starfleet officer."

If she had hoped that expounding his accomplishments would help him open up to her, she was very much mistaken. Her shoulders sank almost imperceptibly when his answer was as cool and collected as always. "Thank you ma'am."

Deanna spent the rest of the maintenance call staring at Fenton's back, trying to figure out what exactly was going on inside his head. Through her empathic abilities, she could sense a higher level of anxiety and irritation that the last time she had seen the Lieutenant. But then again, everyone on board had had a difficult few days.

Deanna sighed and shook her head. As usual when dealing with Fenton, her thoughts were going in circles, the counselor gave up trying to engage the young man in any kind of enlightening discussion and just sat back and to watch the Lieutenant work.

It was unfortunate that he was so incredibly anti-social, she thought, he was actually quite handsome when one got past the prickly exterior. Even if one took into account his apparent character flaws, there were no shortage of women on board that would fall into his arms if he gave them a chance. Fenton had an intriguing aura around him, full of mystery, and carried himself with confidence and an almost inhuman grace. Once again, Deanna marveled at the young man's level of control...

Deanna's thoughts ground to a halt. There was something about that last statement that bothered her, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Deanna had never met someone as vexing as Daniel Fenton. Every answer she found just led to more questions. He was anti-social without any apparent reason, spent almost all his spare time in his quarters, showed no interest in his own accomplishments (to the point where he would purposefully downplay his own abilities), and possessed remarkable emotional control for someone…his…age...

That was it, she realized suddenly...his age.

His mind did not feel like a young man. Only a telepathic or empathic would be able to tell, but there was something old about Lieutenant Fenton…something about how he reacted to situations. He had the steady presence of someone a great deal more experienced than an officer of his age should be able to boast. More than old, Deanna decided as she stared a hole in his back. There was something about Fenton that was almost ancient. A quiet, ageless confidence that said he could handle anything the universe might throw his way…that he had seen it all before. In fact, she realized, his presence reminded her a great deal of Guinan. She was still pondering this revelation when Danny closed the panel on the replicator, gathered his tools, and stood up.

"It was just a problem with the coil alignment." He reported. "It should be fine now Councilor."

At that point he seemed to register the odd manner in which Councilor Troi was regarding him. "Is there a problem Councilor?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Deanna seemed to shake herself out of her thoughts. "No Lieutenant, that will be all. Thank you."

With a brisk nod, Danny strode out of the room, his mind already on what he would do with Dani and Adrian once he was back in the Zone. A little practice in the Far Frozen sounded nice, and maybe he would introduce Adrian to a few more people while he was at it. He had a feeling that she and Dora would get along marvelously.

Meanwhile, Councilor Troi was watching him with disconcerting intensity as he left. She had the strangest feeling that she had just made a break through in understanding the anti-social lieutenant. He was holding something back, she just knew it. There was something here that was more than just being anti-social, something more than trying to forget some childhood trauma. As the months passed, she had become more and more sure that he was hiding something significant. She just wasn't sure what it was.

Deanna let out an exasperated sigh, one of many that had emerged from her lips since Fenton had come on board. There was no sense worrying about it now, she wasn't going unravel the mystery tonight anyway. _And speaking of mysteries_, Deanna realized, looking at the clock on her wall, she had to get moving, or she would be late for the senior staff meeting that the captain had called. He hadn't said what the meeting was about, but there was a rumor it was about these supposed 'ghost' sightings that had been going around.

* * *

Meanwhile, many light years away, another being was considering the mysterious halfa. The Borg Queen replayed her drones' final transmission for the one-hundred fifty second time since the unfortunately unsuccessful raid on the Federation colony. She focused especially on his transformation, appearing human one moment and something else entirely in the next.

The Queen found herself intrigued. Never had she, or any of the thousands of minds the Borg had assimilated over the years, ever encountered such a being. What was he? He was obviously not human, nor any other species she knew. As she considered the appearance and cavalier demeanor of the creature however, something clicked in the back of her mind.

Several years previous, the Borg had assimilated another Federation colony, including a retired human historian. The Queen had put little importance on the woman's knowledge of pre-World War Three events at the time, but now as she looked at this strange creature, a familiar tug came from that portion of the hive.

Bringing the memories of the unfortunate scholar to the forefront of her mind, the Queen considered this new information with increasing interest.

"Danny Phantom," She murmured, wondering how the Borg might turn this to their advantage. "Interesting...how very, very interesting."

* * *

So? Love it? Hate it? See something that I could've done better? Please let me know. Reviews entice me to write faster!

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. I got some really interesting thoughts from everyone about the last chapter. I can't even describe how much that meant to me. I'm glad that I can bring a little enjoyment into someone's day.

You know the drill...I own nothing that you recognize.

* * *

"Is there any possible medical basis for these sightings Doctor?" Picard asked the blue dressed woman down the table from him. It galled him to have to call a senior staff meeting over something as trivial as a practical joker who had gone too far, however, on the Enterprise trivial odd occurrences tended to become major incidents with alarming frequency. In the Captain's considerable experience, it was better to nip such things at the bud. The earlier they were resolved, the less damage was done trying to repair them. Therefore, when crewmembers start seeing a dead crewmate 'haunting' the halls, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Not that I can think of," Doctor Crusher replied. "I've preformed every neurological and medical scan I can think of, but they've yielded no answers. In all the subjects, endocrine and synaptic response levels are normal. There is no abnormal brain activity to suggest that they are hallucinating, and all their optical nerves seem fine. As far as I can tell medically, they are actually seeing what they are seeing."

"What about psychological factors?" Commander Riker asked, looking to Deanna. "Losing a crewmate so suddenly like that..." He trailed off hopefully.

Deanna shook her head. "If it is a reaction to psychological stress, than it is the most random occurrence of such a phenomena that I have ever seen. Few of the people who have seen the ensign were close to her. Several didn't even know her."

The captain placed a thoughtful hand over his mouth. "Mr. Laforge," He said at length. "Is it possible that there is some environmental cause for these sightings?"

"Not any that I can find sir," The engineer replied. "Everything looks normal. I've even had teams manually checking environmental systems across the ship, just in case some of the internal sensors are off, but there are no signs of malfunctions. I wish I could be more help Captain...but honestly? I'm stumped."

The captain let out an explosive breath, this was getting ridiculous.

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way." Dr. Crusher said slowly.

All eyes turned to her. "Explain." Worf demanded.

"Well," The Doctor continued slowly, "We've been operating under the assumption that it's either someone running around with a holoprojector, in which case we haven't been able to find the person, or that there's something wrong with the people suffering from these visions."

"You think there's actually a ghost on board?" Commander Riker asked incredulously.

"I didn't say that," Beverly replied levelly, "but it's not like we haven't picked up unintentional hitchhikers before. Some of which, if you'll remember, were able to mimic the forms of people."

The Doctor had a point, stranger things had happened.

"It is possible." Data agreed. "However, that scenario begs several questions. Of all crewmembers on the Enterprise to imitate, why select Ensign Whipstaff?"

"Maybe because she was the first to encounter it." Riker suggested. "Geordi, what was the cause of the energy spike that killed the Ensign?"

"Freak accident and faulty manufacturing." Geordi replied. "One of the grids we took on during our last resupply had a flaw in the wiring. No one noticed. Eventually it caused a random energy arc between two secondary systems and the entire thing went up. Unfortunate and tragic, but as far as I can tell, very explainable."

"There's no way it could've been caused by a similar energy life form as we've seen in the past?" The Captain asked.

"That would be impossible to say for certain Captain," Data corrected. "As we do not know the exact nature of the hypothetical life form. It is possible that the faulty grid reacted badly to the presence of such an entity. It is also possible that the accident was, as Geordi has reported, a simple malfunction."

"I other words, we're still at square one." Riker muttered in exasperation. "Lots of possible ideas, but no answers."

"At this point Number 1, I don't want any idea discredited." Picard interjected. "Mr. Worf, you will continue your investigation into the matter, if it is a practical joker, I want the individual found. In the meantime Mr. Laforge, continue your manual scans, report any anomalies to me immediately, no matter how small. Councillor, I would like you to speak again to all those who have seen these visions. Look for any consistencies, any attempt that the vision made to communicate with those it was showing itself too. If we have a hitchhiker, the only reason I can think of for it to take human form is communication. Perhaps we can find a way to make contact with it, see what it wants." He looked around the table. "I want this matter cleaned up as soon as possible. Dismissed."

As his senior staff filed out of the room he indulged himself in a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. This whole ghost business was becoming entirely tiresome.

* * *

_It was dark, so incredibly dark that Danny couldn't see his hand when he put it in front of his face. Normally of course, the darkness didn't bother him, but there was something different about this darkness, something malevolent and evil. He could feel the cold creeping around him like the tentacles of some great monster. In the back of his mind, he knew none of this was real, but he couldn't help the fear that coursed down his back. Disoriented and frightened he tried to fly, tried to will himself away from the darkness, but he couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't tell which way was up or down or gain any reference from the pervasive, never ending black . Where was Tucker? Where was Sam? They were here a second ago, he knew it. The eerie silence was broken by a chilling laugh. "I have your friends little boy, come find them." The voice was horribly familiar. "Danny, Danny, can little Danny come out to play?"_

_The darkness was banished, replaced instead by a burning, blinding light. Danny blinked hard to adjust his eyes, only to wish that he had remained blind. He saw his best friends, saw Sam and Tucker, Jazz and Andrea lying_ _motionless on the ground. He didn't stop to wonder how Andrea was there, even though she wasn't even born when the others had died, all he could think about was the horrible figure standing over their bodies, their blood dripping from its claws._

_Danny screamed and launched himself at the figure. "Who are you?" He screamed. "Who are you?"_

_Suddenly, everything changed. Suddenly he was the one standing over his friends and lovers, covered in their blood. Sam's glazed eye's glared at him in accusation. "No matter how far you run, how long you hide, eventually you will turn into me." The voice whispered poisonously in his ear._

_Danny turned around to see the one person he hoped he never would again, the evil version of himself. Dark Dan laughed, singing in a sick childish voice. "I am you, you are me. We killed our whole family...Face it, I'm inevitable."_

"NO!" Danny screamed, bolting upright in bed. Still lost in his own nightmare, it took him a moment to realize that he was not, in fact, witnessing the deaths of all those he had loved, but was lying safe in his quarters on the Enterprise. After realizing what had happened and checking to make sure he had not inadvertently destroyed something in his subconscious terror, the halfa laid down again, willing his body to stop shaking and his breathing to slow.

Where had that come from? He hadn't had that nightmare in years. Carefully going over the last few days, Danny tried to think of anything that would bring that particular horror back after years of being free of it, but nothing came to mind. Perhaps it was his increasingly detached attitude towards the world outside the Ghost Zone. Maybe, subconsciously, he had equated humanity with life outside the Zone. With his increasing desire to leave that life, perhaps he was subconsciously worried about losing the humanity that kept him in check? It was possible, he thought.

Although, such a conclusion brought with it several very disturbing questions. Danny had always maintained to everyone (including himself) that he lived outside the Zone in order to help people. But if that wasn't true, if he simply remained out here out of some subconscious attempt to maintain his humanity, then he had to ask himself if his heroic efforts were truly altruistic. He had become comfortable over the years with being called a hero, had even begun to think of himself in those terms, but if his efforts weren't truly selfless...if he was actually doing it for his own benefit... The central point of heroics after all was to put the needs of others in front of oneself. If he was staying out of the Zone out of an attempt to help himself more than any need to help others...

It was a disturbing thought, and not one that he particularly wanted to explore. Having finally slowed the shaking of his body, Danny rolled over to check the time and groaned loudly. Halfway through the night, and he knew from experience that there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep. He could go into the Zone, but Dani and Adrian would still be in bed. He didn't have the heart to wake them. However, he also had no desire to stay in his quarters. Like so many other occasions, the nightmare had left him with a feeling of restlessness. Giving up sleep as a bad job, Danny got dressed, intending to wander the corridors for a while. Maybe a walk would calm him down enough that he could get some rest.

As he often did when simply walking, Danny began to lose himself in memories. He thought of Tucker and Sam and Jazz, remembering all of the ridiculous situations the four had found themselves in. He thought of those first, terrifying, exhilarating days when his powers were more out of control than in, when they had all been young and inexperienced, figuring things out as they went and flying by the seat of their pants. Danny vividly remembered his first flight, his first ectoblast, his first battle. The adrenaline flowing and the wind in his hair, smart remarks flying past his lips. It was a freedom and confidence he had never known before.

He remembered the excitement of his secret, back when it was exciting instead of just a burden. He remembered how it felt to have something between him and his friends that was just for them. Something that set them apart from everyone else. Secret ghost hunters. He laughed sadly at the memory. Those bonds, that camaraderie...it could only be forged by going through the things that they had gone through together. It was a once in a lifetime thing...and Danny had never found its like again.

He remembered kissing Andrea for the first time beneath a giant oak on a high hill. If you turned your head you could just see the ruins of the city they had both lived in, utterly destroyed by the fury of the third world war. He remembered the light she had brought him in that, his darkest hour. How she had challenged him by her example, given him the strength to get up and move forward when all he had wanted to do was find a dark hole and pull the entrance in after him. He recalled the bittersweet satisfaction of rebuilding, creating a new future with Andrea at his side. He remembered the pain he had felt when he had decided to take Phantom out of the public eye, a sense of loss that he couldn't articulate even to this day.

Danny stopped short. He hadn't really been paying attention to where he was going. He had just let his feet wander, paying only the barest attention to his surroundings. Coming back to himself, he was surprised to find himself at the entrance to Ten Forward, a place that he usually avoided like the plague. Now however, the normally loud and boisterous area was empty and silent. Considering his options for a moment, Danny went in. Just like the first time he had been there, the whole place exuded a feeling of calm and peace. Without the usual crowds, Danny was free to enjoy the serene atmosphere, letting the soft light and curving lines of the architecture ease the tension from his muscles. Relaxing despite himself, he slid into a chair. Perhaps he should come here after hours more often.

"Do you want to talk about it?" The voice came out of nowhere. To a person who was used to defending himself at the slightest notice, the fact that someone was able to sneak up on him was both disconcerting and startling.

Whipping around, Danny found himself looking at an attractive dark skinned woman leaning on a bulkhead across the room. He recognized her as the woman who ran Ten-Forward, Guinan he thought her name was. Seeing that he avoided this place usually, he had never talked to her, but she had the reputation of intelligence and wisdom. Honestly, she was the type of person that he could've become close friends with if circumstances were different. "Excuse me?" He asked a little sharply. "What makes you think there's anything wrong."

She just smiled a knowing smile and approached him. "Of course there's something wrong," She said, sliding into a chair facing him. "You're in here well after hours, glaring at the bulkhead. In my experience, the only reason someone comes in here this late is that they have something bothering them."

"So..." She repeated. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Danny shook his head, caught off balance by Guinan's disarming nature and ancient eyes (like my eyes, he thought to himself). "It's nothing," He muttered. "Just a bad dream."

"Ah," She said compassionately. "Well, if anyone has the right to have a few bad dreams, it's you. I can't imagine how you get any sleep at all."

Danny looked at the dark skinned woman curiously. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm pretty fresh off the academy; I haven't had the chance to see things that would give me nightmares."

"No?" Guinan challenged. "Your eyes say differently. They say you've seen more horror than anyone on this ship."

Danny's eyes narrowed as they considered the woman sitting opposite him, her relaxed face and smiling (almost smug) expression.

She knew, he realized in a flash of inspiration. He had no idea how she knew, but she did. His entire body went rigid. Who had she told? Had she told the Captain? He had heard they were friends. He should go. He should pack his stuff and run to the Ghost Zone right now, before the news had time to spread.

Much as his logic was telling to get out of there and never look back however, he was held in place by Guinan's compassionate and non-threatening demeanour.

"How did you find out?" He whispered. "How long have you known?"

"Since the moment you walked in the door all those months ago." Danny gave her a sharp look. "Don't worry, I haven't told anyone. I don't intend to tell anyone either. As far as I'm concerned, it's your secret and it should be your choice for anyone to find out."

She shifted a little closer and gave him a conspiratorial smile. "As for how I knew...well, I don't know what you've heard, but I'm not so young myself." She went on, seeing Danny's uncomprehending look. "I remember hearing about you. Back when you were a household name. Back when the Disasteriod nearly destroyed the whole Earth and you helped save it. An entire world turning intangible? You were big news back then, big enough to reach beyond your own planet, and I always did enjoy listening to a good story."

Guinan smiled at his dumbfounded expression. "In any case, the point is that I know. There's no reason to be worried about secrets here." She sat back in her chair. "So, back to my original question, do you want to talk about it?"

Danny regarded Guinan in silence for a long time before letting his muscles relax. If she had wanted, she could've given him up a long time ago. Besides, there was something about her that made her seem trustworthy. Actually, now that he thought about it, she reminded him a great deal of Clockwork, albeit a less cryptic, female version of the time master. "It's nothing I can't handle." He finally relented. "Just old fears and old faces."

"Tell me about it." Guinan sounded genuinely interested.

Danny suddenly found the far wall very interesting. "If you remember back then, you may remember what kind of power I had, what kind of power I still have, because it hasn't degraded with age."

"No," Guinan agreed. "From what I understand, ghosts only get stronger as time goes on, although I suppose it was possible that your human half would negate that a little."

"It didn't." Danny assured her. "My power's increased the longer I exist. And that's the point. My greatest fear is that it's too much for one person to hold. I'm terrified that one day all that power will turn me into something just as bad as the things I've fought for centuries. That was my nightmare, that I had turned on everyone I cared about, that I had become a monster." The last sentence came out in little more than a whisper.

Guinan nodded her understanding. "I don't think it's an unusual fear, given your situation. Some would say that it's even healthy, making sure that you'll keep yourself in check."

Danny caught her eyes with his own. "And what would you say?"

Guinan paused consideringly. "You've held this power for centuries, and as far as I know, you haven't abused it. You've managed yourself. You've been a hero. Should you really torture yourself over something that history says you won't let happen?"

Danny chuckled without humour. "Tell that to my subconscious, it's the one making the dreams."

"True." Guinan allowed.

The two sat in silence for a long while. For Danny it was refreshing change. For the first time in a long time, he found himself truly enjoying the company of another person who was not dead. Danny relished the companionable silence so much, that he was almost sorry when Guinan broke it. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know anything about these 'ghost' sightings that have been going around, would you?"

Danny glanced over. "It's not me, if that's what you're thinking."

"And that wasn't an answer." Guinan shot back with a smile.

Danny shrugged. "It's second nature for me to be cryptic. It comes from keeping secrets for so long." He paused. "It's her, the ensign who died. I was helping her test her powers and we wanted to see if she was old enough to be seen by non-ghosts."

"It's catching people's interest." Guinan cautioned. "The Captain has a lot of senior staff working on finding out the cause. He's worried that it might be the precursor to some major incident. It's not like it hasn't happened before."

Danny nodded. "I thought about that, but Adrian was curious and I was reluctant to deny her something that might make her happy so soon after the funeral. I figured that as long as we kept our heads down from here on in, the 'ghost' would eventually be forgotten."

"You're probably right." Guinan agreed. "Still, be careful... or at least, be more careful than usual."

Danny smiled, "I will." He glanced at the clock. "I should go; I still want to get some sleep tonight."

He got up as if to leave, but turned around before he reached the door. "I really enjoyed this." He said. "It's been a while since I could actually talk to someone out here, someone who understands."

Guinan smiled. "I know. If you ever want to talk again, you know where to find me."

Danny smiled as well, but it faded from his face and he looked at Guinan hard for a moment. "It's my secret right?" He asked.

"I won't tell a soul." Guinan assured.

"Not even the Captain?"

"Especially Jean-Luc. But for what it's worth, I think he'd take it very well. It's not like it was those centuries ago."

Danny smiled without humour. "I'm not so sure. Nothing ever really changes, little lone human nature."

"That's an awfully cynical way of seeing the universe." Guinan mused.

"You wouldn't be the first to tell me so." Danny said with a shrug. "And who knows, maybe this time I'll actually be proven wrong."

Guinan gave a little, helpless laugh. Turning around, Danny made his way back to his quarters, feeling better than he had in a very long time.

* * *

A/N: So? What did you think? I would really appreciate any comments on how I handled Guinan. I'm aware that I might be twisting canon here a little. I know that during Danny's time, Guinan was not on Earth, but I know she spent some time there previously and I kind of think that she'd take an interest in any news. I also think that an entire planet becoming intangible might be the sort of thing that gets out into the wider universe, if only because of the scientific oddness of it. Plus, you know, she's Guinan...she knows all sorts of mysterious and inexplicable things.

Let me know!


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